“This new knowledge park should serve between 5,000 and 10,000 people,” Roi Et municipality mayor Mungkorn Yontrakul said.

Launched on March 9, TK Park Roi Et is the 18th TK park in the country and enlivens the atmosphere of learning in a way different from old-style libraries.

The TK Park Roi Et has transformed itself from a traditional library that sat behind the province’s One Tambon One Product (Otop) centre into one providing people with better access to enjoyable learning media. The transformation results from a collaboration between the Roi Et Provincial Administrative Organisation and the Office of the TK Park, which aims to set up 34 TK parks in 25 provinces across the country.

“We expect TK Park Roi Ei to promote reading habits among children and youth,” Mungkorn said.

He said reading was good for self-development, and reading habits kept children from being attracted to bad influences.

“To appeal to youth and children, we make TK Park Roi Et very lively,” he said. Mungkorn said inside this shiny library, children and adults could find ample opportunities to learn more in a relaxing atmosphere.

Office of Knowledge Management and Development’s chairman Kanit Saengsuphan said the Office of TK Park sought to work with local administrations to make global resources available as well as to promote local knowledge and culture through creative activities and workshops.

“The aim is to promote learning, a foundation of economic development at both the community level and national level,” Kanit said.

The Office of TK Park seeks to set up TK facilities in provinces where local administrative bodies are ready for such collaboration.

TK Park Roi Et is divided first into many zones, each serving a different purpose. The first zone, the Reading Park, provides modern resources like books and magazines that are regularly updated.

The second zone, the Kid Zone, features a library for children, packed with a variety of interesting youth-orientated books. Children’s activities are staged regularly in this zone.

The third zone, the Computer Zone, offers 17 computers to users. Another interesting corner is the Mini Theatre Zone, where movies and documentaries are screened for people to relax and learn at the same time. A tea and coffee corner is also available for visitors.

TK Park Roi Et has also dedicated one of its corners to honour HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn.

In addition, it provides a Quiet Zone for anyone needing to concentrate on reading.

So far, TK Park Roi Et has received good feedback from visitors.

Woraya Panomket, an assistant librarian at the park, said the number of library users had increased since the old library had been transformed.

“I’ve also noticed that more people come as a family,” she said, “There are many kinds of activities for people of all groups here.”

She said parents could take part in other classes for adults such as English lessons while children are joining other activities.

“We have native speakers conducting such a class. We also have some vocational workshops,” Woraya added.