All Projects

2012

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

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

2009

Digitization Project hosted by Colombo Tamil Sangam Library

Project Number	NF/PG/2009/0001	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 Colombo Tamil Sangam contributes towards the betterment of the Tamil language, culture and arts. It was established in 1942. It operates a library with more than 45,000 books and magazines. A special purpose reference section aiming to preserve Sri Lankan Tamil related documents is functioning as part of that library. The goals of the Digitization Project hosted by the Colombo Tamil Sangam Library Project were to document and archive the Sri Lankan collection of the Colombo Tamil Sangam Library.

Totally 2,950 valuable books and magazines were digitized through this project and made available online through Noolaham Foundation’s Digital Library www.noolaham.org.

• Full Report

2007

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

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 2005-2008

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