Abstract:
The purposes of this research were to study the proservation and services of the Thai wisdom information in libraries in the higher education institutions. Problems concerning their preservation and services were also examined. The sample group of this study consisted of the librarians who were in charges of the preservation and services of the Thai wisdom information in 118 institutions. Data were analyzed by using the percentage, mean and standard deviation statistics.The results of the study were:1. It was found that few libraries had specific policy concerning the plan/projects and the follow up guidelines to organize and manage the Thai wisdom information and no personnel had been appropriately assigned to handle the collection. The following acquistion strategies were used to acquire the materials; purchasing (library budget), donation; exchange or borrow from other institutions; in-house production and reproduction of the materials; and created URL lingk to other related web sites. It was found that the Thai wisdom collection was organized in 3 different methods; shelved with regular collection, set up a special collection within the library, and set up a special center for Thai wisdom information. Formats of the information collected were books, journal articles, pamphiets, clippings, research reports, encyclopedia or dictionary of the local culture, government publication, videocassettes and photos. Access to this information could be done through online serching or CD ROM.2. The following problems concerning the preservation and services of the Thai wisdom information were identified; 1) lack of cooperation and coordination at the institutional and personal level; 2) no explicit budget was allocated to support the management of the collection; 3) lack of coordination between the libraries and the resource persons of the Thai wisdom information; 4) lack of space and appropriate factilities to house and maintain the materials; 5) lack of creativity to create and promote the new and interesting services of the Thai wisdom information; 6) few users rate; and 7) lack of a qualified librarian who had \Thai wisdom knowledge to provide the appropriate reference services