Giving Directions

When English speaking visitors want to find certain areas of the libraries, our answers will depend on where the question is being asked. For example, if a visitor at the Pridi Banomyong Library asks us:

Where is the law library?

or

Where is the Law School library?

or

Where is the Faculty of Law library?

It would be correct to reply:

In the Faculty of Law building,

but this may not be helpful enough, if the visitor also does not know where the Faculty of Law building. We can refer visitors to campus maps posted around Tha Prachan, but these are not always easy to read, especially for English-speaking students and ajarns. So the best way to react woukd be to try to explain in as few worss as possible how to get from where you to the Faculty of Law library. For example, if the question was asked on the Underground 1 level of the Pridi Banomyong Library, we might say:

Walk up to the ground level and walk straight ahead towards Sanam Luang. The Faculty of Law library faces the Sanam Luang entrance to the campus.

This may not solve the problem either, as the visitor may not know what Sanam Luang is or where it is. Usually if we add:

next to the Royal Palace.

then most visitors will have an idea of what direction we are pointing them in. There is no better way to make sure that visitors get to the library they are looking for than to personally take them upstairs and point them in the right direction, but it is not always possible for staff to drop all other responsibilities to be this helpful. Instead, we are telling the visitor what is near the library in question. We can add further detail:

Walk past the football field, almost to the main entrance of the campus. Look for the sign saying Faculty of Law. The entrance is on the ground floor.

Is it worth telling English-speaking visitors that the Faculty of Law library is near Nha Prathat Road? Probably not, first of all because most English speakers will have difficulty understanding, pronouncing, and remembering Thai words such as Nha Prathat. Also, Nha Prathat Road is off-campus, so if the visitor has walked all the way there, that means they have walked too far, past the library. Instead, it is safe to assume that most visitors, if they follow our suggestions and go in the right direction, or even if they go in the wrong direction, they should be able to ask students or ajarns for further information if they need it. They might ask, pointing in the way they are going:

Is this the way to the law library?

or

Is this the way to Sanam Luang?

It may be that we have given the visitors only the first part of all the information they need to find the Faculty of Law library, but eventually they will find it. This is also true of collections within libraries. For example, if a visitor to the Pridi Banomyong Library asks where is the Charnvit Kasetsiri Room, if the question was asked on the Underground 1 level of the library, near the circulation desk, we may reply:

On this floor.  Just walk straight ahead.

or we might tell them, pointing in the right direction:

On this floor. Just walk this way.

If the question was asked on the Underground 3 level of the Pridi Banomyong Library, the answer is a little more complicated. We could say:

Two flights up. Ask at the circulation desk.

We can assume that the visitors know where the circulation desk is, since they passed it when they entered the library. If they look confused, we can say:

Upstairs. Ask at the library entrance.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)