Embassy Activities
U.S. Academic Librarians in the Communication Age
During her first visit to the American Corner at Khon Kaen University in the last week of November, the U.S. Department of State’s new Regional Information Resource Officer Wendy Simmons and Embassy Bangkok’s Information Resource Center (IRC) Director Supiengpitch Bhuyatorn accepted an invitation from the university's Instructional Resource Center to give a presentation to its staff the current trends in U.S. academic libraries. Emphasizing the latest information and communication technologies, Ms. Simmons and Ms. Bhuyatorn captured the audience with a lively discussion on the rapid development and changing trends in the use of World Wide Web technology, known as Web 2.0, as well as the latest efforts by leading U.S. universities to turn their libraries into "information commons," where students and faculties come not only to search provided databases, but also to share and 'build' their own databases which are accessible by their peers around the globe. She also showed how U.S. academic librarians and information specialists have used the latest communication technologies such as Facebook, wiki software, video and photo sharing websites, etc., to interact with their clients and lure young audience back to the libraries. The working librarians in the audience asked many tough questions about how to bring the use of this interactive technology into their own systems.