Completed Projects

2012

Manuscripts Archive Jaffna Public Libray 2012

Project Number	NF/PG/2012/0007	Grant Agency / Donors	Noolaham Foundation	Project Owner	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan
Project Mentor	Seran Sivananthamoorthy	Project Locations	Jaffna	Project Period	2012 September – 2012 December
Stakeholders	Jaffna Public Library, Volunteers of Noolaham Foundation

The Manuscripts Archive Jaffna Public Library 2012 was carried out by Noolaham Foundation in 2012 to digitize and archive the collection of palm-leaf manuscripts held at Jaffna Public Library. This type of project was the second project carried out by Noolaham Foundation in the same year. To maximize use of palm-leaf manuscripts through online access of the digitized documents and increase the life of the collections are the main objective of the project.

Through this project 5 manuscript volumes were digitized. A web portal also will be created. These precious collections consists of information on Tamil literature, prose and verse, history and tradition, grammar and lexicography, art, indigenous medicine, astrology, science, architecture and folk-lore. These document collections will be made freely accessible and downloadable in the user-friendly interface of Noolaham Foundation’s Digital Library and most of the knowledge seekers will have easy access to these services. This project was a successful initiative and received special appreciation from scholars.

• Full Report

Muslim Archive Pilot Project

Project Number	NF/PG/2012/0006	Grant Agency / Donors	Noolaham Foundation	Project Owner	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan
Project Mentor	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan	Project Locations	Akkaraipattu, Ampara District	Project Period	2012 September - 2013 September
Stakeholders	Larisdeen Rajeeb, Mr. Mahroof Fauzer and Mr. M.I.M.Jabeer

The Muslim Archive Pilot Project was the pilot project conducted by Noolaham Foundation to create a special collection called Muslim Archive within the Foundation’s digital library www.noolaham.org. The Muslim Archive collection aims to collect and update a comprehensive information resource pool about the Tamil speaking Muslim communities of Sri Lanka. This project was implemented with the support of various individuals who had documents about Muslim issues in Sri Lanka.

During this project 201 rare and endangered documents were digitized and made available online through Noolaham Foundation’s Digital Library to the Tamil speaking community. A web portal was created for the Muslim Archive special collection where all documents related to the Muslim identity can be located and accessed. This project was a successful initiative and received special appreciation from Sri Lankan Muslim writers and publishers.

• Full Report | Muslim Archive at Digital Library

Digitizing Publication for Online Access

Project Number	NF/PG/2012/0005	Grant Agency / Donors	Neelan Tiruchelvam Trust / Noolaham Foundation	Project Owner	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan
Project Mentor	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan	Project Locations	Colombo and Jaffna	Project Period	2012 September - 2014 March
Stakeholders	Neelan Tiruchelvam Trust

The Digitizing Publications for Online Access project was carried out by Noolaham Foundation in Colombo and Jaffna with the project funding received from Neelan Tiruchelvam Trust in Colombo and Jaffna. The main goal of this project was to identify, locate and digitize various publications and make them available online.

During the project period, Noolaham Foundation has digitized 31,053 pages from 262various kinds of publications and made them available through the digital library at noolaham.org. These publications include works of eminent Tamil and Muslim writers. Also, Noolaham Foundation has obtained written permission from 52 copyright holders to digitize their writings and publications and make them available online. We obtained permission from writers, institutions and schools. The permission obtained from these persons and institutions has enabled Noolaham Foundation to release another 20,000 pages which had been archived but held back from open access because of copyright restrictions. A number of publications digitized through this project enabled us to launch two more projects releasing DVDs of publications of two schools.

• Full Report

Manuscripts Archive Chunnakam Public Library 2012

Project Number	NF/PG/2012/0004	Grant Agency / Donors	Noolaham Foundation	Project Owner	Seran Sivananthamoorthy
Project Mentor	Seran Sivananthamoorthy	Project Locations	Jaffna	Project Period	2012
Stakeholders	Chunnkam Public Library, S. Balamurali

The Manuscripts Archive Chunnakam Public Library 2012 project was carried out by Noolaham Foundation in 2012 to digitize and archive the collection of palm-leaf manuscripts and archaic coins in the Chunnakam Public Library. Digitization of palm leafs and ancient coins is a first-of-its-kind activity undertaken by NF. To archive as electronic document, maximize the usage of palm-leaf manuscripts, provide access to them freely and enhance the study of ancient numismatics through online access of digitized documents, and to understand and depict the history and promote the prestige of the Tamil state are the objectives of the project.

The project was completed by December 2012. Through this project ten manuscript volumes and seventy five ancient coins were digitized and will be launched publicly at www.noolaham.org. A web portal will also be created for easy access and could be downloaded in the user friendly interface. These precious collections are related to the Tamil speaking communities of Sri Lanka. These palm leafs were the storage medium for ancient literature, philosophy and science containing valuable knowledge such as medicine, Tamil literature, stories, paintings, family Notes, family Accounts, grammar books, astrology, septic breakdown remedies, animal remedies, Vegan books and thesaurus. The digital preservation of these manuscripts is one of the more respectable achievements of the project in the context of cultural preservation. This project was a successful initiative and received special appreciation from librarians and scholars.

• Full Report

Digital Library for School Students Pilot Project

Project Number	NF/PG/2012/0003	Grant Agency / Donors	Noolaham Foundation	Project Owner	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan
Project Mentor	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan	Project Locations	Jaffna, Trincomalee and Colombo	Project Period	2012 - 2013
Stakeholders	Department of Education, Northern Province Various Zonal Education offices and School teachers

The Digital Library for School Students Pilot Project was carried out by Noolaham Foundation in 2012/2013 to create open access digital library for the Sri Lankan Tamil speaking students and educators. This project was aimed at digitizing educational materials. It was the first step taken by the Foundation towards establishing virtual learning platforms for the Tamil speaking students in Sri Lanka through its Pallikoodam Program. It is an educational initiative of Noolaham Foundation that aims at creating an alternative, community-centered educational system among the Tamil speaking communities in Sri Lanka.

Through this project 500 G.C.E advanced level and ordinary level exam papers were digitized and made available online at Noolaham Foundation’s Pallikoodam Program website at www.epallikoodam.org. Events were conducted at four schools to introduce the Pallikoodam Program as well as Noolaham Digital Library. The Education Department of Northern Province, four zonal Education departments and 11 schools contributed towards this project. This initiative was a massive success and special appreciation came from school teachers and students.

• Full Report

Manuscripts Archive Pilot Project 2012

Project Number	NF/PG/2012/0002	Grant Agency / Donors	Noolaham Foundation	Project Owner	Seran Sivananthamoorthy
Project Mentor	Seran Sivananthamoorthy	Project Locations	Jaffna	Project Period	2012
Stakeholders	Seran Sivananthamoorthy, Federal Assistance Award, French institute of Pondicherry, EAP 458 Team

The Manuscripts Archive Pilot Project 2012 was carried out by Noolaham Foundation in 2012 to establish the Manuscripts Archive Program of the Foundation. While conducting Documentation and Archiving of Rare Endangered Documents project, Noolaham Foundation came across a number of palm-leaf manuscript collections in Jaffna. The flatbed scanners which were being used at that time were not suitable to scan such fragile documents. Thus a pilot project was implemented to evaluate feasibility, time, cost, adverse events, and effect size (statistical variability) of digitizing manuscripts and to establish a Manuscripts Archive Program.

Noolaham Foundation acquired the expertise and received training from EAP 458 team based at the French institute of Pondicherry, India. EAP 458 Team was carrying out a project under the British Library’s Endangered Archive Program. A small sample of ola leaf volumes were also digitized during the project. This project was a successful initiative and received special appreciation from scholars.

• Full Report

Documentation and Archiving of Rare Endangered Documents

Project Number	NF/PG/2012/0001	Grant Agency / Donors	US Department of State	Project Owner	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan
Project Mentor	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan	Project Locations	Colombo and Jaffna	Project Period	2012 - 2013
Stakeholders	Staff and Volunteers of Noolaham Foundation

The main goal of the Documentation and Archiving of Rare Endangered Documents Project was to document and digitize rare and endangered documents related to the Tamil speaking communities of Sri Lanka. Two workshops were conducted to introduce the importance of documentation and archiving and to provide digitizing training; moreover, sustaining a volunteer pool to carry out future activities was also planned as part of this project. It was funded by the US Department of State

Through this project 660 rare and endangered documents were digitized and made available online through Noolaham Foundation’s Digital Library (www.noolaham.org) to the Tamil speaking communities of the entire world. Further, two workshops were conducted by Noolaham Foundation about the importance of documentation and archiving. The project also provided digitizing training to volunteers and other stakeholders as well. During the project period a sustainable volunteer pool was built to carry out future projects. Noolaham Foundation is happy to report that all project goals had been achieved and more projects have been initiated.

Digital libraries are significant as they lower the bar for participation by information producers and collectors. It democratizes the generation and distribution of information. Thus this project supported by US Embassy has enabled Noolaham Foundation to preserve and revitalize culture and knowledge. In a long term perspective, the outcomes of this project will contribute immensely towards fostering knowledge-based development in Sri Lanka.

• Full Report

2011

Digital Documentation Discussion Series 2011

Project Number	NF/PG/2011/0006	Grant Agency / Donors	Noolaham Foundation	Project Owner	Seran Sivananthamoorthy
Project Mentor	Seran Sivananthamoorthy	Project Locations	Colombo and Jaffna	Project Period	2011
Stakeholders	Colombo Tamil Sangam, Students of Computer Science and Engineering society of the University of Moratuwa

In 2011, Noolaham Foundation successfully conducted five presentations and workshops with volunteers on under the initiative of ‘Digital Documentation Discussion Series 2011’. These events were held from April 2011 to October 2011. These discussions were conducted in collaboratation with the Computer Science and Engineering Society of the University of Moratuwa. They were facilitated by key scholars and activists from the Tamil speaking communities in Sri Lanka as resource persons. The events named Eedu (ஏடு) and Panaiyoolai (பனையோலை) and targeted at creating awareness about digital opportunities, preservation and about the Foundation’s activities.

More than 150 participations and nearly 15 key persons participated and were benefited by this project. Puthiya Noolaham newsletter was introduced and distributed during these events. Furthermore, a video presentation "Kadanthu Vantha Paathai" created by volunteers was presented at the final seminar held on the 02nd of October 2011. It was a valuable documentary about the Foundation’s overall activities.

• Full Report

Digitization Workshops for Library Science Students

Project Number	NF/PG/2011/0005	Grant Agency / Donors	Noolaham Foundation	Project Owner	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan
Project Mentor	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan	Project Locations	Jaffna	Project Period	2010 - 2011
Stakeholders	Chinthanaik Koodam, Jaffna

The Digitization Workshops for Library Science Students was carried out by Noolaham Foundation during late 2010 and early 2011 to strengthen operational infrastructure within the Noolaham Foundation’s network and to train Library Science students and Noolaham Foundation’s volunteers in digitization methods and digital preservation.

In 2010 and 2011, Noolaham Foundation conducted two digitization workshops for five days with library science students under the title of ‘Digitization Workshops for Library Science Students’. These workshops were held from December 2010 to October 2011 at Vannarpannai, Jaffna. These workshops were collaborated with Library Science Students, ChinthanaikKoodam, Jaffna and Center for Women, Jaffna. These workshops were facilitated by Ms. A. Valarmathy, program coordinator of Noolaham Foundation. AlsoProf. Samuel Ratnajeevan Herbert Hoole and Prof R. Sivachandarn shared keynotes during the workshops. Approximately 50 Library Science students and volunteers participated in the workshops and were benefited by this project.

• Full Report

Digitization Project hosted by Jaffna Public Library 2011-2012

Project Number	NF/PG/2011/0004	Grant Agency / Donors	Noolaham Foundation	Project Owner	Seran Sivananthamoorthy
Project Mentor	Seran Sivananthamoorthy	Project Locations	Colombo and Jaffna	Project Period	2011 - 2012
Stakeholders	Jaffna Public Library (JPL)

The Digitization Project hosted by Jaffna Public Library 2011-2012 was carried out by Noolaham Foundation during the years 2011 and 2012. The objectives of this project were to document and archive the collections related to the Tamil speaking communities held by the Jaffna Public Library. It was a collaborative project undertaken by Noolaham Foundation and the Jaffna Public Library. This project enhanced access to information sources as a vast and diverse range of printed publications were digitized and made available online. The digital copies of publications that came out before 1981 were handed over to the Jaffna Public Library.

Through this project 1840 documents were digitized and most of them were made available on Noolaham Foundation’s digital library at www.noolaham.org. It was a significant achievement by Noolaham Foundation as these collections consist of texts on Philosophy and Psychology, Computing and Information Technology, Religion ,Social Sciences such as Sociology, Casteism, Feminism, Politics, Economics, Marxism, Law, Child care, Education, Business, Culture, folklore and Sex, Language and Linguistics such as lexicography, Tamil grammar, Sinhala Language and so on, Science and logic, Indigenous Medicine, Astrology, Agriculture and Cooking, Arts, Sculpture, Music, Cinema, Literature, Literary history, Poems, Prose and Verse, Short Stories, Jokes, Novel, Drama, Children's Literature and history.Most of the documents digitized were made available online for free access and could be downloaded from the user-friendly interface of Noolaham Foundation’s Digital Library. This project was a successful initiative and received special appreciation from scholars and the library circles.

• Full Report

Digitization Project hosted by Jaffna Public Library 2011-2012

Project Number	NF/PG/2011/0004	Grant Agency / Donors	Noolaham Foundation	Project Owner	Seran Sivananthamoorthy
Project Mentor	Seran Sivananthamoorthy	Project Locations	Colombo and Jaffna	Project Period	2011 - 2012
Stakeholders	Jaffna Public Library (JPL)

The Digitization Project hosted by Jaffna Public Library 2011-2012 was carried out by Noolaham Foundation during the years 2011 and 2012. The objectives of this project were to document and archive the collections related to the Tamil speaking communities held by the Jaffna Public Library. It was a collaborative project undertaken by Noolaham Foundation and the Jaffna Public Library. This project enhanced access to information sources as a vast and diverse range of printed publications were digitized and made available online. The digital copies of publications that came out before 1981 were handed over to the Jaffna Public Library.

Through this project 1840 documents were digitized and most of them were made available on Noolaham Foundation’s digital library at www.noolaham.org. It was a significant achievement by Noolaham Foundation as these collections consist of texts on Philosophy and Psychology, Computing and Information Technology, Religion ,Social Sciences such as Sociology, Casteism, Feminism, Politics, Economics, Marxism, Law, Child care, Education, Business, Culture, folklore and Sex, Language and Linguistics such as lexicography, Tamil grammar, Sinhala Language and so on, Science and logic, Indigenous Medicine, Astrology, Agriculture and Cooking, Arts, Sculpture, Music, Cinema, Literature, Literary history, Poems, Prose and Verse, Short Stories, Jokes, Novel, Drama, Children's Literature and history.Most of the documents digitized were made available online for free access and could be downloaded from the user-friendly interface of Noolaham Foundation’s Digital Library. This project was a successful initiative and received special appreciation from scholars and the library circles.

• Full Report

Digitization and Dissemination of Contemporary Tamil Newspapers

Project Number	NF/PG/2011/0003	Grant Agency / Donors	Noolaham Foundation	Project Owner	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan
Project Mentor	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan	Project Locations	Colombo and Jaffna	Project Period	2011 - 2013
Stakeholders	Local Newspaper publishers

The Digitization and Dissemination of Contemporary Tamil Newspapers project was carried out by Noolaham Foundation during the period between 2011 and2013 to digitize the current and past issues of contemporary newspapers that have readership among the Tamil speaking communities of Sri Lanka. It was a collaborative project undertaken by Noolaham Foundation in coordination with various publishers. The project aimed at preserving, and disseminating digital copies of the print, published documents. The main objectives this project were to provide open access of contemporary and past issues of newspapers, preserve and create wide global visibility of the information they carried.

Totally 372 issues of contemporary newspapers under 14 titles were digitized through this project and made available online through Noolaham Foundation’s Digital Library at www.noolaham.org.Table of contents were manually inputted to enhance the search ability of the content. A web portal was also created at the digital library so that users could identify and access the issues easily and could download them in the user friendly interface.

• Full Report | Newspapers Portal at Digital Library

Digitization and Dissemination of Contemporary Magazines

Project Number	NF/PG/2011/0002	Grant Agency / Donors	Noolaham Foundation	Project Owner	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan
Project Mentor	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan	Project Locations	Colombo and Jaffna	Project Period	2011 -2013
Stakeholders	Local Newspaper and Magazine publishers

The Digitization and Dissemination of Contemporary Tamil Magazines Project was carried out by Noolaham Foundation during 2011-2013 to digitize and display the current and past issues of contemporary magazines related to the Tamil speaking communities of Sri Lanka. It was a project undertaken by Noolaham Foundation in collaboration with various publishers. The main objectives of this project was to provide open access of contemporary and past issues of magazines, preserve and create wide global visibility of these packed valuable information.

This project was successful in collecting 59 titles of contemporary periodicals and making them available online through Noolaham Foundation’s Digital Library at www.noolaham.org. As Tamil OCR is not available, Table of contents was manually inputted to enhance the search-ability of the content. A web portal (annexure 1) was also created at the digital library so that users could identify and access the issues easily and download in the user friendly interface. This collection of materials is not available elsewhere and is of both historical as well as scholarly value.

• Full Report | Magazines Portal at Digital Library

Organizational Datasets Pilot Project

Project Number	NF/PG/2011/0001	Grant Agency / Donors	Noolaham Foundation	Project Owner	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan
Project Mentor	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan	Project Locations	Up-Country	Project Period	2011 - 2012
Stakeholders	Various organizations

The Organizational Datasets Pilot Project was carried out by Noolaham Foundation in 2011/12 to locate resources about organizations and websites related to Sri Lankan Tamil communities. The scope of the project was to identify and index the information about Sri Lankan Tamil speaking community based organizations, links to other related datasets and websites, and to make all entries available online without any access restrictions under a Creative Commons license.

Through this pilot project, details about 2987 organizations and websites were gathered, and indexed. The information was collected from many organizations such as Tamil Libraries, Educational Institutions, Publishers, Places of Worship, and other Institutions like political parties, Community Based Organizations (CBOs), NGOs, and Websites. A web portal named Noolaham: Tharavuthalangal (நூலகம்: தரவுத்தளங்கள்) was also created at Noolaham Foundation’s Digital Library at www.noolaham.org. This portal will enable effective and speed searches of the required information.

• Full Report

2010

International Center for Ethnic Studies Digitization

Project Number	NF/PG/2010/0005	Grant Agency / Donors	Noolaham Foundation	Project Owner	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan
Project Mentor	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan	Project Locations	Colombo	Project Period	2010
Stakeholders	International Center for Ethnic Studies Ponnudurai Thambirajah – Chief Librarian ICES

The International Center for Ethnic Studies Digitization Project was carried out by Noolaham Foundation and International Center for Ethnic Studies (ICES), Colombo in 2010 to digitize the publications of the ICES. It was a collaborative project undertaken by Noolaham Foundation collective with another organization.

Through this project 137 documents were digitized and were made them available on Noolaham Foundation’s digital library at www.noolaham.org. The digitized publications include books, research papers, working papers, lectures handouts, monographs, reports, magazines, periodical newsletters and journals. This project increased online information sources on civil society, human rights, post war and land issues, history of conflict, capacity-buildings, current socio – political and economical configuration and contributed towards the mission of International Center for Ethnic Studies as well.

• Full Report | ICES Portal at Noolaham Digital Library

Thinamurasu Digitization Project

Project Number	NF/PG/2010/0004	Grant Agency / Donors	Noolaham Foundation	Project Owner	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan
Project Mentor	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan	Project Locations	Colombo	Project Period	2010
Stakeholders	Thinamurasu Publishers

The Thinamurasu Digitization Project was a collaborative project carried out by Noolaham Foundation and Thinamurasu Publishers to digitize the weekly issues of Thinamurasu newspaper. Thinamurasu, a weekly newspaper of Eealam Peoples Democratic Party, is published from Colombo and issued all over Sri Lanka. It contains news articles such as political commentaries, narratives about national events, as well as issues of local and regional importance, family notices such as family’s birthday announcements and obituary notices and congratulatory messages, letters such as letters to the editor written by the newspaper’s readers including and letters focusing on contemporary debates, aspirations and anxieties, information on the lives of notable individuals and ancestors, photographs, graphics, maps and editorial cartoons.

A total of 661 Thinamurasu issues dating from 1993 to 2007 were digitized through this project and made available online through Noolaham Foundation’s Digital Library www.noolaham.org. A web portal was also created at the digital library so that the users can access information about the magazines and read the issues easily.

• Full Report | Portal at Digital Library

Sarinihar Digitization Project

Project Number	NF/PG/2010/0003	Grant Agency / Donors	Noolaham Foundation	Project Owner	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan
Project Mentor	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan	Project Locations	Colombo	Project Period	2010
Stakeholders	Sarinihar publishers

The Sarinihar Digitization Project was a collaborative project carried out by Noolaham Foundation and Sarinihar Publishers to digitize the past issues of Sarinihar newspaper and magazines in 2010. This was implemented as a collaborative project between the publishers and Noolaham Foundation in 2010. Sarinihar focused sharply on issues related to the Sri Lankan Tamil speaking communities and the civil war. Sarinihar newspaper contains news articles such as political commentaries, political poetry and stories as well as essays and reports on issues of local and regional importance including issues such as feminism and caste discrimination, illuminating contemporary debates about the Sri Lankan Tamils’ liberation war, the effects of the civil war, Sri Lankans’ aspirations and anxieties in the war period. The newspaper also disseminated a lot of information on the lives of notable individuals and ancestors. It included photographs, graphics and editorial cartoons. Sarinihar publications could be considered as historical documents about the scars created by the war in Sri Lanka. It covered the major political developments that the island witnessed from the 1990s onwards.

A total of 214 Sarinihar issues dating from 11.06.1990 to 18.2.2001and four Sarinihar magazines were digitized through this project and made available online through Noolaham Foundation’s Digital Library www.noolaham.org.Table of contents were manually inputted to enhance the searchability of the content. A web portal was also created at the digital library so that users could access information about the magazines and read the issues easily.

• Full Report | Portal at Digital Library

Puthiya Poomi Digitization Project

Project Number	NF/PG/2010/0002	Grant Agency / Donors	Noolaham Foundation	Project Owner	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan
Project Mentor	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan	Project Locations	Colombo	Project Period	2010
Stakeholders	Puthiya Poomi Publishers

The Puthiya Poomi Digitization Project was carried out by Noolaham Foundation and Puthiya Poomi publications in 2010 to digitize the publications of the Puthiya Poomi monthly newspaper. It was a project undertaken by Noolaham Foundation in collaboration with another organization. The main objectives this project was to provide the public open access to the Puthiya Poomi publications, preserve and create wide global visibility of historical documents.

The Puthiya Poomi is a political monthly newspaper published by I. Thampiya from Colombo. It typically contains news articles and feature articles on national and international issues as well as local news. The news included is related to vulnerable people, current national and internal political explorers, struggles of the people against imperialism, proletarian activities, social and left wing political concepts about communists’ life over two decades. Totally 114 Puthiya Poomi monthly issues were digitized through this project and made available online through Noolaham Foundation’s Digital Library at www.noolaham.org.

• Full Report | Portal at Digital Library

Digitization and Dissemination of Contemporary Tamil Newspapers Pilot Project

Project Number	NF/PG/2010/0001	Grant Agency / Donors	Noolaham Foundation	Project Owner	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan
Project Mentor	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan	Project Locations	Colombo, Jaffna and Eastern Sri Lanka	Project Period	2010
Stakeholders	Santhirasegaramoorthy Ramanan

The Digitization and Dissemination of Contemporary Tamil Newspapers Pilot Project was carried out by Noolaham Foundation in 2010 to digitize the current issues of contemporary newspapers. It was a collaborative project undertaken by Noolaham Foundation in coordination with various publishers. The project aimed at collecting, preserving, and disseminating digital copies of printed newspapers. The main objectives this project were to provide open access of contemporary newspapers, preserve and create wide global visibility of the valuable information in these papers. The project was implemented as a pilot project to evaluate feasibility, time, cost, adverse events, and effect size (statistical variability) prior to a full-scale project.

Totally 246 valuable contemporary newspapers under four titles were digitized through this project and made available online through Noolaham Foundation’s Digital Library at www.noolaham.org. These collections included 165 issues of Thinakkathir, 42 issues of Thisai, 10 issues of Nihari and 29 issues of Aathavan newspaper; the last two were published by Ravaya publishers, Colombo. These publications analyze social, political, cultural and judicial issues related to Sri Lanka. A web portal was also created so that all contemporary magazines can be accessed easily.

• Full Report

2008

Digitization Project in Trincomalee

Project Number	NF/PG/2008/0005	Grant Agency / Donors	Noolaham Foundation	Project Owner	Mauran Muralitharan
Project Mentor	Mauran Muralitharan	Project Locations	Trincomalee and Colombo	Project Period	2008
Stakeholders	Vilvarajah Prashanthan, Sargunam Sathiyathevan, SDRO

The Digitization Project in Trincomalee was conducted by Noolaham Foundation during 2008 in Colombo and Trincomalee. It was implemented as a volunteer driven project to digitize a collection of print publications which were donated to Noolaham Foundation at Trincomalee by various well-wishers.

Through this project 102 books and magazines were digitized and made available online through Noolaham Foundation’s Digital Library atwww.noolaham.org. This collection of documents was gathered through NF’s volunteers. After digitization, those publications were either returned to the contributors or donated to libraries. This project was a successful initiative and received special appreciation from Tamil writers and publishers of Trincomalee.

• Full Report

Digitization and Display of Monographs 2008-2009

Project Number	NF/PG/2008/0004	Grant Agency / Donors	Noolaham Foundation	Project Owner	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan
Project Mentor	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan	Project Locations	Colombo and Jaffna	Project Period	2008 May - 2009 April
Stakeholders	Volunteers of Noolaham Foundation

The Digitization and Display of Monographs 2008-2009 was conducted by Noolaham Foundation during 2008/09 in Colombo. The objective of the project was to digitize and display a series of books on the Noolaham Digital Library’s home page. It was part of Noolaham’s communication strategy of that period.

The project was implemented in two phases. During the first phase, a book was displayed each day for four months (May to August 2008) and during the second phase, a new book was displayed each week (September 2008 - April 2009). Through this project 155 various kinds of documents were digitized and made available online through Noolaham Foundation’s Digital Library at www.noolaham.org. After the digitization, those publications were either returned to the contributors or donated to libraries. This project was a successful initiative in introducing Noolaham digital library to users from diverse backgrounds.

• Full Report

Gnanam Digitization Project

Project Number	NF/PG/2008/0003	Grant Agency / Donors	Noolaham Foundation	Project Owner	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan
Project Mentor	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan	Project Locations	Colombo	Project Period	2008
Stakeholders	Gnanam Publishers

The Gnanam Digitization Project is a collaborative project between Gnanam Publishers and Noolaham Foundation as part of Noolaham Foundation’s long term efforts to develop digital resources of contemporary magazines and make them freely accessible. This project extends the usefulness of the Tamils bibliographic and digitized assets by increasing access to this valuable information and provides an opportunity for institutions to select and contribute digitized information resources.

The first issue of Gnanam Magazine was published in June 2000 and it is published monthly. Gnanam issues contain poetry, creative essays, short stories, fiction, and political blogs and columns, as well as news about contemporary literary events and readers’ opinions. This magazine gives space to young innovative writers and their thoughts. Also Gnanam publishers brought out some collections of work by Sri Lankan writers. They have also been digitized by NF during this project.

Totally 91 monthly issues and 6 books were digitized through this project and made available online through Noolaham Foundation’s Digital Library at www.noolaham.org. NF has created a special web portal to increase search ability. The magazines and books digitized date back to the 2000s. Noolaham Foundation has established plans to collect and digitize the future issues on a regular basis.

• Full Report | Portal at Digital Library

Digitization and Dissemination of Contemporary Magazines Pilot Project

Project Number	NF/PG/2008/0002	Grant Agency / Donors	Noolaham Foundation	Project Owner	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan
Project Mentor	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan	Project Locations	Colombo and Jaffna	Project Period	2008
Stakeholders	Local Magazine publishers

Digitization and Dissemination of Contemporary Magazines Pilot Project The Digitization and Dissemination of Contemporary Magazines Pilot Project was carried out by Noolaham Foundation in 2008 to digitize the current issues of contemporary Tamil magazines that focus on Sri Lankan Tamil speaking communities. It was a collaborative project undertaken by Noolaham Foundation in coordination with various publishers. The project aimed at collecting, preserving, and disseminating digital copies of printed magazines. The main objectives this project were to provide open access of contemporary magazines, preserve and create wide global visibility of the valuable information in these magazines. The project was implemented as a pilot project to evaluate feasibility, time, cost, adverse events, and effect size (statistical variability) prior to a full-scale project.

This project was successful in digitizing76 issues of 13 titles of periodicals. All of them are available online through Noolaham Foundation’s Digital Library at www.noolaham.org. The table of contents was manually inputted to enhance the search-ability of the content. The digitized magazine was also categorized at the digital library so that users could identify and access the issues easily.

• Full Report

Digitization Project in Colombo 2008-2009

Project Number	NF/PG/2008/0001	Grant Agency / Donors	Noolaham Foundation	Project Owner	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan
Project Mentor	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan	Project Locations	Colombo	Project Period	2008 - 2009 February
Stakeholders	Kandiah Nagenthirapillai, Theepan Thevathasan, Sivaramakrishna Sarma, Rathina Iyer Pathmanaba Iyer

The Digitization Project in Colombo 2008-2009 was conducted by Noolaham Foundation during 2008 and early 2009 in Colombo. The objective of the project was to digitize a collection of print publications donated or loaned to Noolaham Foundation for digitization. Thus documents collected in Colombo and diasporic magazines sent by Pathmanaba Iyer were digitized through this project.

This project was implemented from January 2008 and to February 2009. Through this project 148 books and magazines, and 176 diaspora magazines were digitized in 2008 and another 245 documents were digitized in 2009. All 569 documents were made available online through Noolaham Foundation’s Digital Library at www.noolaham.org. This project was a successful initiative and it received special appreciation from many Tamil writers and publishers.

• Full Report

2007

Digital Library CMS Project 2007

Project Number	NF/PG/2007/0004	Grant Agency / Donors	Noolaham Foundation	Project Owner	Kopinath Thillainathan
Project Mentor	Mauran Muralitharan	Project Locations	Colombo	Project Period	2007
Stakeholders	Mauran Muralitharan, volunteers of Noolaham

The Digital Library CMS Project 2007 was carried out by Noolaham Foundation to create an easily accessible Content Management System to host the Noolaham Digital Library. Prior to this project, Noolaham website was created by simple html links. MS Frontage html editor was used for this purpose. This site was inadequate to search the content. Even browsing as all the information had to be inputted manually.

During this project, initially Joomla CMS was installed and around 100 pages were created. But the testing was unsuccessful as the contributors struggled to understand the CMS. Thus Mediawiki software was tested and it was quite successful. The Tamil Wikipedia approach was used as a number of volunteers contributed towards the project.

• Full Report

Womens' Education and Research Centre Digitization Project

Project Number	NF/PG/2007/0003	Grant Agency / Donors	Noolaham Foundation	Project Owner	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan
Project Mentor	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan	Project Locations	Colombo	Project Period	2007 - 2008
Stakeholders	Dr. Selvi Thiruchandran, Mr. Mahesh Vairamuthu and Women's Education and Research Center (WERC) and Volunteers of Noolaham Foundation

This Women’s' Education and Research Centre Digitization Project was carried out by Noolaham Foundation and Women's Education and Research Center (WERC) in 2007 to digitize the publications of the WERC. It was the first collaborative project undertaken by Project Noolaham collective with another organization.

A total of 140 documents were digitized through this project and 132 of them were made available online through Noolaham digital library at www.noolaham.org. About 100 of the digitized publications were the publications of Women’s Education and Research Centre including books, magazines, newsletters and journals. This project increased the number of Tamil publications related to Women’s issues in Sri Lanka online, and thus contributed towards the mission of the Women’s' Education and Research Centre as well.

• Full Report | WERC Portal at Noolaham Digital Library

Digitization Project in Colombo 2007

Project Number	NF/PG/2007/0002	Grant Agency / Donors	Noolaham Foundation	Project Owner	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan
Project Mentor	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan	Project Locations	Colombo	Project Period	2007 February – 2007 December
Stakeholders	Ganeshananthan Vajeeven, Thillainathan Kopinath, Thelivathai Josheph, Balasubramaniam Sivakumar, G. T. Ketharanathan, Sabanayagam Thillakan, Sivaraj, Sivagnanam Jeyashankar, Balasubramaniam Thuvaragan, Sellavel Lambotharan

The Digitization Project in Colombo 2007 was carried out by Noolaham Foundation during 2007 to increase the publications stored in Noolaham Digital Library. This project was an innovative implementation that used donated funds as well as volunteer resources to increase the efficiency of digitization initiatives. An incentive was provided to the volunteers to finish the project within the given timeframe.

A total of 1,117 documents were digitized through this project and 1,074 of them were made available online through Noolaham Foundation’s Digital Library www.noolaham.org. This project significantly increased the Noolaham Digital Library collection and enabled us to get a wider recognition among Tamil internet users and get more support and resources towards Noolaham Foundation.

• Full Report

Text Digitization Project in Colombo 2007

Project Number	NF/PG/2007/0001	Grant Agency / Donors	Noolaham Foundation	Project Owner	Kopinath Thillainathan
Project Mentor	Kopinath Thillainathan	Project Locations	Colombo	Project Period	2007
Stakeholders	Vettivel Jasikan, Rathina Iyer Pathmanaba Iyer, Thambiah Thevathas

The Text Digitization Project in Colombo 2007 was a digitization project which was initiated to convert physical books into machine readable formats. It was one of the first funded projects carried out by Noolaham Foundation. Prior such funded projects, most digitization tasks were done by volunteers and they did not progress quickly. Some volunteers who were participating in the activities of Noolaham Foundation proposed that they would like to make monetary contributions and a project should be coordinated to digitize books, as they would not find time, expertise and resources to type the books manually. Thus the funded projects were started.

A total of 44 books were digitized through this project and made available online through Noolaham Foundation’s Digital Library www.noolaham.org. This project was a successful initiative and received special appreciation from Sri Lankan Tamil writers and publishers.

• Full Report

2006

Text Digitization Project in Jaffna 2006

Project Number	NF/PG/2006/0001	Grant Agency / Donors	Raththina Iyer Pathmanabha Iyer	Project Owner	Srikanthaluxmy Arulanantham
Project Mentor	Srikanthaluxmy Arulanantham	Project Locations	Jaffna	Project Period	2006
Stakeholders	Srikanthaluxmy Arulanantham

Modeled on the Project Gutenberg approach, the Project Noolaham was started in 2005 with a view to creating a fully volunteer contributed online e-book library for the Tamil speaking communities. The Text Digitization Project in Jaffna 2006 was the first funded project initiated by Noolaham Foundation.

A total of 81 books were digitized through this project and made available online through Noolaham Foundation’s Digital Library: www.noolaham.org. This project was a successful initiative and received special appreciation from Sri Lankan Tamil writers and publishers.

• Full Report

2005

Marumalarchi Digitization Project

Project Number	NF/PG/2005/0001	Grant Agency / Donors	Kopinath Thillainathan	Project Owner	Kopinath Thillainathan
Project Mentor	Kopinath Thillainathan	Project Locations	Colombo and Jaffna	Project Period	2005 - 2008
Stakeholders	Sinthuja Kopinath

Marumalarchi Digitization Project was one of the pioneer and earlier digitization initiatives which contributed towards Project Noolaham which evolved into Noolaham Foundation. Modeled on the Project Gutenberg approach, the Project Noolaham was started in 2005 of with a view to creating a fully volunteer contributed online e-book library for the Tamil speaking communities. The Marumalarchi Digitization Project initiative was started in 2004 and ran all the way to 2008. At the beginning of this project, the documents were typed. Adding e-books during the early part of his project was quite slow, due to time constrains. Later scanning was introduced through this Project and it became the accepted digitization method at Noolaham Foundation.

A total of 219 (55 books typed and 164 books scanned) books were digitized through this project and made available online through Noolaham Foundation’s Digital Library www.noolaham.org. This project was a successful initiative and received special appreciation from Sri Lankan Tamil writers and publishers.

• Full Report