A beautiful, traditional Thai jacket. What a generous and useful gift.

Enjoying Dr. Maria's 84th birthday BIG BOOK put together by the library staff

Farewell foods

Farewell, exchanging gifts

Farewell 3

The roasted pumpkin (we call this acorn squash in the U.S.) is filled with cocoanut custard. Yum.

The part on my fingers always tastes best.

Farewell 2

SWU Farewell Party

As always, my colleagues (now friends) at Srinakharinwirot University's Central Library made me feel right at home during my stay, and they seem to be genuinely interested in my experiences and how we do things in Ohio and U.S. academic libraries. The farewell party for this trip was warm, generous, and fun. I helped make some of the treats. The most interesting one is a nut/brown sugar filling formed into small balls, which are then covered with tapioca and boiled in water. The tapioca doesn't have very much taste, but it turns transparent, and holds everything together. Quite fun to make and tasty.

Vimanmek Teakwood Palace

Warinthon is a PhD student in English at SWU whom I met in the library elevator. We struck up a conversation, and she agreed to be my tour guide on an outing to this gorgeous early 20th century palace built of teak, without nails, only wooden pegs.

Dusit Throne Hall with gorgeous Thai handicrafts, also a view of Parliament from the lawn of the throne hall

fond farewell 'til next visit

Chulalongkorn University Workshop on Library Science Research 1-22-10

Chulalongkorn University is the oldest, most prestigious, and richest university in Thailand. It was founded in 1917 by King Vajiravudh (Rama VI) and named in honor of his father King Chulalongkorn (Rama V). The campus covers a huge area of downtown Bangkok, with spacious green gardens surrounding most buildings.

The main library on the strongly decentralized campus is called the Center of Academic Resources (CAR). It's large (7 storeys) and was obviously built with all the best materials 30+ years ago. The Gallery of the university's Fine Arts Dept. is on the scenic top floor with good views of the city. Lots of special collections, particularly international ones are included, plus a fine collection of rare books.

I presented my lecture on Library Science Research to a good group of staff and the Q&A afterwards was interesting and rewarding. Quite a few young librarians were present.