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Thursday, March 28, 2024

TK Park underlines learning forward mission with the newly upgraded “TK Read” app Helping readers in the age of 5G with aim to be the central digital library

Thailand Knowledge Park (TK Park) is expanding its online learning space for future learning with the launch of the newly upgraded “TK Read” application. The newly upgraded application is a key platform for digital reading, dubbed as the country’s “largest and most modern digital library”.

It is resulted from the survey that highlighted the increased eBook usage by 160% in 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic. The new app comes with exciting features and user-friendly design to create new experiences for readers. Its upgraded system has capacity to grow and facilitate a rising number of readers in the future, with an aim to serve asa central digital library for the nation.

Mr.Kittiratana Pitipanich, Director-General of Thailand Knowledge Park (TK Park) noted that at a time when innovation and tech was in a state of constant rapid development, and had assumed a role in everybody’s daily lifestyles, access to services and information has become convenient at any time and any place. The learning space is also facing change, and we can no longer provide the same service to the public. It is our core mission to adapting ourself to the future of learning and innovation. Therefore, the original TK Park Online Library application, in use since 2013, has been upgraded into a new version, “TK Read”, under the concept of “Thailand’s largest and most modern digital library”, in response to changing reading behaviors.

The usage statistics over the last two years found that before the COVID-19 pandemic, the average borrowings were about 10,000 times per month. At the start of Covid-19 in the beginning of 2020, total borrowing doubled, particularly in April eBooks were borrowed over 90,000 times. In 2021, borrowings for the whole year totaled over 400,000, and at present over 30,000 books are borrowed every month, with members increasing between 2,000 and 3,000.

The new-look “TK Read” app has been designed to respond to reading and lifestyle trends of book readers who prefer online reading formats. It provides Thai-language eBooks from leading publishers nationwide totaling 3,600 books and 27 eMagazines in 788 volumes, 111 Audiobook titles totaling 529 items and over 100 online courses. All of these are updated monthly and there are key features to make reading easier, including:

  • Versatile – supporting every format of usage: Options for reading both PDF and
    E-PUB format and supporting any device, whether a smartphone, tablet or E-reader, running either iOS or Android or on the website https://read.tkpark.or.th .
  • Smart Search – personalized books and easy search: Recommending books from readers’ lifestyles and preferences. Search easily from a keyword or a sentence in the story. Create bookmarks to mark specific pages for future reference, and sync them with multiple devices.
  • Ease your eyes – eye-friendly features for all: Let readers to adjust font size, background colors that good for their eyes. Background has four modes: normal, eyesight-friendly, night-time and grey.  Read aloud or text-to-speech voice reader is available on EPUB format.
  • Stress Free – easy with no fines: Get notifications when your queue has arrived, and time to return. Click follow favorite authors, publishers, topics or new books with instant alerts. Allow download for offline reading and auto return all items with no late fines.
  • Reading Tracker – Keep track with your reading: Help readers track their reading times and book lists to see their progress over time. Notetaking while reading (for only iOS.)

“TK Park is still committed to creating a space for lifelong learning with no limit. Besides physical learning space extension, TK Park has also created an online reading space with the development of a flexible library platform for book and media usage. All digital library materials have legal copyrights and we provide sufficiently according to for readers’ demands. TK Read is the most outstanding and modern digital library application for Thai books and media. We are ambitious to become the largest central digital library to serve and accessible for Thai people throughout the country. The digital library will not only be a digital space to keep eBooks but at the end it will evolve to become the intelligent learning platform for people in the future,” concluded Kittiratana.

Mr. Pattana Philuekruedet, Founder and Head of Operations Director of Hytexts Interactive Limited, said that many libraries have adapted to becoming digital libraries to a greater extent, because the COVID-19 situation meant that they could not provide full service. Combined with this, people were also learning from home and working from home, making learning more difficult. Meanwhile, reading behavior switching from physical books to electronic books generated increased demand for digital libraries from library members. This can be seen clearly in 2021, when Hytexts only managed 4 organizations, whereas now there are over 90 organizations using the service. The growth of digital libraries is worth over 100 million baht. In developing digital libraries, the first consideration is selection of content, which must match the needs of users,
so that they will use the service consistently. Having efficient management systems reduces the burdens on personnel, enabling organizations and publishers to grow together. Most importantly, they provide convenience for readers with the constant development of new features. 

Parichat Salicupt, or Kingchat, a famous novelist, said that the digital library contains books with legal copyrights, which are well controlled and overseen. The system is easy to use and convenient. It is another channel to promote reading and give opportunities to children and young people to access good books and information. It is a treasure house for readers, and not different from a traditional library. The digital library is also a space to disseminate the work of writers to be distributed more widely and more quickly. It is also a space to exchange information between readers and writers. 

Anyone can use TK Park’s digital library for free. Just download the TK Read app today on iOS or Android, or read on the website https://read.tkpark.or.th

Keep up with news and information at www.tkpark.or.th or the Facebook Page TK Park.

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