22 February 2023 @ Mekong School Library
Wiang Chiang Khong, Chiang Rai
Chiang Khong Conservation Group, and the Mekong School Institute of Local Knowledge, under the support of the USG Coalition for Northern Thailand through the USAID and Australian Embassy Mekong Safeguards program administered by the Asia Foundation, conducted the first online library training and digitization workshop on Wednesday, February 22, 2023 at the Mekong School Library, Wiang Subdistrict, Chiang Khong District, Chiang Rai Province.
The purpose of this activity is to establish an open-source data collection platform for all knowledge and research documents related to the Mekong River Basin. The project aims to support the design, structure, and development of a library and to build capacity so as to make print media, previously stored scattered in multiple locations, reducing barriers to access, and increasing the ease of searching for information when needed. For this reason, this online library was created to be a repository that facilitates convenient and easy access to local knowledge for all interested parties.
Students from the library club and librarian teachers from four schools in the areas participated in testing the library system, together with the working group of the Chiang Khong Conservation Group. The testing activity and resulting feedback produced an idea to create a library where teachers and students, as well as the general public can become both a librarian, contributing resources, and a user of the library, and for the libraries of all four schools to use the same platform. This will make the library a fun and alive place for learning outside the classroom, and the activity built the basis for further collaboration between the schools and the Mekong School, Institute of Local Knowledge.
