Discussions among the workshop attendees made it clear that most academic libraries around the world face issues including library support for distance and web-based education, building partnerships with faculty to integrate information skills into the curriculum, how to do outcome assessments, and how to change education for librarianship to make it more realistic for the next century. The University and General Research Libraries Section addressed important issues currently of concern to academic librarians within the international setting. It has a new main library, with four levels underground and three levels above ground. It was interesting to note that the Thai government plans to free all universities of state control within the next five years. The library was heavily used, but had very few computers although it has a new automated library system and several Internet connections.
Electronic resources are still scarce.
Bangkok is an exciting and interesting city with more than 10 million inhabitants. The traffic is a nightmare but people seem to have adapted to it. The Thai food is wonderfully delicious and there are many restaurants. Shopping is plentiful and bargaining is the acceptable way of doing business. It is a city of contrasts, beautiful flowers and palaces, enormous traffic jams and tremendous poverty.