Text Box: A Few Notes on Research in Thailand Constance M. Wilson While editor of the CORMOSEA Bulletin, 1982-1991, I wrote a series of articles on historical research in Thailand: “Cultural Values and Record Keeping in Thailand” (10/2 (1982) 1-17); “Addenda” (11/1 (1983) 5-8); “Microfilms from the National Archives of Thailand” (18/2 (1989) 26-28); and “The National Library of Thailand. New Regulations for the Reproduction of Documents” (19/1 (1990) 4-8). The current editor, Judith Henchy, familiar with the past history of the Bulletin, has asked me to update my earlier comments with reference to current research practices in Bangkok. In undertaking this assignment, I should note that my last visit to the National Library and National Archives was in the summer of 1990 and that I have not visited the country since 1996. There has been a major expansion of international interest in Thailand and its neighbors in the past few decades. The number of people engaged in research in the country represents a very large number of international students and scholars. Students and scholars from Japan have long been a part of the research scene as have those from Western Europe and Australia and New Zealand. With the end of the Cold War, students and scholars from the People’s Republic of China and from Eastern Europe represent the interests of universities and newly established research institutes in those nations. And there has always been some interest in Thailand on the part of Latin America and, possibly, Africa. This adds to the interest of living in Thailand for it presents you with a wide range of viewpoints in the discussions that you will have with fellow researchers. The number of projects being carried out in a wide variety of fields brings in specialists in the sciences, ecology, environmental studies, medicine, and technology, in addition to the earlier presence in the fields of history, art history, literature, music, theater, political science, journalism, sociology, anthropology, and ethnology. My own research has been in the field of historical studies with considerable experience in the National Library and the National Archives concerned with documents from the period between 1827 and 1892. The National Research Council of Thailand The influence of new technology, especially the expansion of the Internet and the World Wide Web, on research in Thailand has been considerable. In many ways, Asian countries have moved ahead of the United States in the use of these technologies. Japanese scholars, for example, are particularly skilled in the use of the computer in research. [1] The situation in Thailand appears to be rather mixed and uneven. Some Thai are fully at home with