Digital Library, Archive and Information Services

The collections and intellectual content developed via the Program and Projects is received by the Digital Library, Archive and Information Services for arrangement, description, rights research and to provide discovery services via Noolaham Foundation platforms. This sector works closely with the Digital Processing and Preservation sector, which processes, digitizes and develops access copies of the material as well as to digitally preserves the material. Further, this sector is responsible for providing library services such as Reference Services, Research Support and Knowledge Mobilization Support. The following processes come under this sector:

Process 26 : Digital Library, Archive & Information Services
Process 25 : Rights Management
Process 29 : Research (Archive / Library)
Process 30 : User Services & Reference Services

Open Access Policy

Documentation, Digital Preservation and Open Access are three pillars for Noolaham Foundation’s work. By Open Access, we mean that the resources are freely available online for all to read and use. Our collections development focuses primarily on public domain/creative common resources and resources which we can legally make openly accessible by obtaining necessary permissions

Digital Object

Each creative work such as archival record, book, image, oral history, or video is considered a single conceptual digital object. A digital object consists of the following logical components:

Bagit with checksum manifest.

• Master files
• Alternate formats (i.e OCR)
• Access copies/derivatives
• Metadata (descriptive, technical, administrative and rights)
• Permission File (if under copyright)

Information only content such as biographies are preserved as a dataset.

Metadata Standards and Management

All materials (library and archival collections) received by Noolaham Foundation via its program must be arranged and described at the item level before processing or digitization.

Descriptive Metadata

Noolaham Foundation uses an application profile derived from Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS) standard for its descriptive metadata. The profile can be found here.

Technical Metadata

Technical Metadata is automatically extracted using FITS for all files. The key technical metadata that needs to be tracked include the following at the master file level:

• Checksum *
• File Format *
• Bit Depth
• Resolution for Image and Audio
• Codec for Video and Audio
• Sample Frequency for Audio

Administrative Metadata

Administrative metadata provides information to help manage a resource, such as when and how it was created. The following info needs to be tracked at the work level.

• Processing Location
• Processing Staff Person
• Archival Information Package (AIP) Creation Date
• Last Time Checksum Checked
• Digitization/Digital Conversion Status

○ Metadata Only - No Known Source

○ Digital Copy Available - Not Public

○ No Digital Copy - Analog/Physical in Office

○ No Digital Copy - Analog/Physical Source Known

Rights Metadata

Rights metadata helps us determine the copyright status of the work, the provenance or the source of the material and the access level assigned to it.

• Source (Source Contributor)
• Copyright Holder (Content Contributor; generally this is the author, sometimes publisher, sometimes multiple parties)
• Published Date (We as assuming it is same as Copyright Date)
• Access Rights Statement

○ Metadata Only

○ Permission Not Yet Obtained for Release

○ Access by Permission

○ CC BY-NC

○ CC BY-SA

○ Public Domain

Rights Management

All content received by Noolaham Foundation must undergo rights research parallel to description and before being digitized or processed. Rights researcher must enter the rights metadata as noted above. Rights research will impact the Digitization Selection Policy.

Noolaham Policy on Intellectual Property Rights

Noolaham Foundation respects Intellectual Property Rights. Noolaham Foundation identifies a risk related to open access policy. Promoting open access might demotivate the publishers and authors to write and publish.

Objectives of Policy

• To provide clear vision and consistent message to stakeholders, Governments, Rights holders about the Noolaham Foundation’s position on Intellectual Property Rights
• To inform the public and clients as to how the intellectual properties created by Noolaham Foundation shall be accessed and utilized.

Noolaham Foundation’s Commitment

• Noolaham Foundation respects Intellectual Property Rights
• Noolaham Foundation utmost priority to resolve any complaints & issues related to property rights.
• Noolaham Foundation shall develop criteria for access policy so that authors and publishers will not be demotivated.

Policy Implementation

1. Intellectual Property of Noolaham Foundation
All Intellectual Propertiescreated by the Foundation should be distributed as free content (copyleft) or open content. Thus the publications should be released under either

• Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported (CC BY-ND 3.0) (for corporate publications such as the Annual Report) or
• Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) (for all other publications)
• All information content created by the Foundation are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 meaning that all content for which the Foundation owns the copyright may be freely used, freely edited, freely copied and freely redistributed subject to the restrictions of that license.

2. Intellectual Properties of third party

• Permission / consents should be obtained for any items before it is archived and given access to end user.
• Noolaham Foundation gives access based on Access Criteria.

Access Criteria of Noolaham Foundation

Open access to some of the electronic resources available through the Noolaham Foundation Digital library is limited for the following reasons.

1. To ensure that the intellectual property rights and publication rights of the concerned parties are not violated.

2. To ensure that the potential publishers and authors are not demotivated because of the open access policy.

Basic Criteria
The selected books or documents should be written by a person or persons from Tamil speaking communities or should be about Tamil Speaking communities.

Online access to Tamil Books and Documents
Tamil Books published after 31 st of Dec 2000, should not be given access online without written permission from the right holders. Tamil Books published within three years, should not be given access online, even though permission is granted by the right holder unless the right holder requests immediate online access.

Online Access to Document in English
It includes books, publications and research papers and should be authored by those belonging to the Sri Lanka Tamil speaking community. Access can be given only after obtaining written permission from right holders.

Online access to Magazines and Journals in Tamil
Open access shall be given after obtaining permission from the publishers of the contemporary magazines/ journals. Maximum effort should be taken to obtain permission before giving open access to non-contemporary magazines or magazines gone out of publication.

Online Access to Newspapers in Tamil
Permission should be obtained before giving online access to contemporary newspapers. Maximum effort should be taken to obtain permission before giving open access to non-contemporary newspapers gone out of publication.

Online access to Other Publications and Documents in Tamil
Maximum effort should be made to obtain the permission from the right holders before giving online access

Digitization Selection Policy

Print resources identified and obtained via the Collections Development process and Projects are prioritized for digitization and digital preservation based on the following criteria. It is the responsibility of the Program Manager to identify the resources for digitization. The Program Manager must take input from the Collections Development process mentor/co-mentor and project coordinators.

• Rare materials, specifically palm-leaf manuscripts, historic inscriptions, rare artifacts without copyright issues.
• Books in the public domain.
• Books with permission or with high likelihood of obtaining permission.
• Resources from Special Collections, including archival records.
• Magazines and Journals
• Newspapers with permission or with very high likelihood of obtaining permission.
• Archival Records
• Other Publications

Note that the resources that need to be returned are prioritized than those in the Noolaham Foundation office. However, the office collections should not be sitting for an unreasonable amount of time (i.e more than one year), as that can violate this criteria.

Digital Processing Selection Policy

Multimedia resources such as images, video and audio identified and obtained via the Collections Development process and Projects are prioritized for digitization and digital preservation based on the following criteria. It is the responsibility of the Program Manager to identify the resources for digital processing. The Program Manager must take input from the Collections Development process mentor/co-mentor and project coordinators.

• Multimedia Resources from Special Collections
• Oral Histories
• Documentary Recordings (video and/or audio)
• Images
• Event Recordings

Physical Collections Policy

Noolaham Foundation mandate is digital first. Noolaham Foundation does not provide any physical access.

Digital Discovery Services

The Digital Library, Archive and Information Services sector works closely with the Technology Infrastructure and Development sector to design, and implement discovery platforms. The goal is to support a robust system that makes it easier for users to find, search, browse, and use the resources.

Reference, Research and Knowledge Mobilization Services

Enabling the widest possible use of the resources Noolaham Foundation stewards is at the heart of its mission. Thus, Noolaham Foundation is building and expanding its Reference, Research and Knowledge Mobilization Services.

Reference services is personal assistance provided to all users to locate information within Noolaham Foundation scope. It is provided virtually.

Research support links university students and scholars to resources and experts and provides training on online research skills. Further, we can assist with developing and stewarding scholar’s research data.