The first public digital library in Thailand was launched last week, with 7,000 titles from five major local publishers awaiting readers.
The service is provided by the Thailand Knowledge Park (TK Park), a public library in CentralWorld Shopping Complex. The state-funded facility is tasked with the mission to modernise libraries and promote reading activity. Araya Ma-Inn, TK Park's acting director, says transferring them into public digital libraries is how traditional libraries will survive in the digital age.
"If libraries still keep going with physical books, they will face budget cuts and be made redundant in future," Arya said at the opening of the launch last Tuesday. The project is an uphill task and it took TK Park eight years to complete.
"The challenge is that online technology keeps on changing and the speed of that change is bullet fast," says Sirikorn Maneerin, the former deputy educational minister and founding executive of TK park, who floated this project in 2007.
TK Park online library.
"When we came up with the project over eight years ago, the internet was not as influential as it is now. Now, everyone has access by just clicking and everyone owns a smart phone." But the real difficulty is how to convince local publishers to jump on board.
"Publishers and writers have always been hostile to digital books as they fear this technology will lead to copyright violation and piracy. So we need to make sure their content is well protected and the online platform will help the sale of physical books," she said. The online library, she added, will eliminate physical hindrances that readers have with books.
"We are talking about readers in faraway areas such as the Mae Sot district in Tak or villagers in Narathiwat, so that they will be able to read similar content to that of people in big cities." TK Park has invited five major publishers -- Nation Group, Matichon, Amarin, Nanmee and Plan for Kids. OOKBEE, Thailand's well-known e-book platform developer, is responsible for developing the system. TK Park gives attractive deals to publishers and ensures their copyright is safeguarded.
"We do not allow a direct download of the text," says Tatsanai Wongpisethkul, adviser of TK park. "Each online book is checked out in the same way as readers borrowing a physical book would do in a traditional library; others need to wait until the digital content has been returned [before they can get access to it]. Publishers can make money because we pay for every book annually and offer more than the cover price. So online libraries can become a market for publishers as well."
Risuan Aramcharoen, managing director of Plan for Kids, says publishers joining the project out of trust should know that TK Park is able to protect copyright and provide a fair remuneration.
"E-books and online libraries are new channels for showing our new content and selling more books," said Risuan. Publishers use online libraries to offer out-of-print books for readers and promote local content. For publishers, online libraries can create new markets and new demands.
There will be 7,000 books, 700 magazines, 200 streamed videos and another 300 audio books. Users can all so read e-books from OverDrive, the famous online library, 2ebook and also read news and magazines at PressReader. The system can accommodate all formats of personal computers, notebooks and smartphones.
Go to www.tkpark.or.th/tha/register for registration.
