Programs and Projects
The Noolaham Foundation programs are primarily aimed at developing Tamil Digital Libraries in various subject areas and in building capacity in communities realted to information literacy.
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.
Contents
Noolaham : Digital Library
Digital libraries make possible enhanced access to information, being as they are available to anybody in any part of the world at any given time. The primary objective of the Noolaham Foundation is to maintain online digital library sans access restrictions.
[www.noolaham.org] indexes various digitised collections accessible online. The Foundation hosts only a part of the e-books collection linked at the digital library, thus making it a virtual collection. Wiki pages for documents from each collection are categorized under their relevant categaries. e-books which are online, but not part of any specufic collection, are organized into one category.
This digital library serves as a learning center where local knowledge is incorporated; enables social interaction for the achievement of constructive social outcomes, and supports cognitive work of scholors and research students.
It should also be noted that it is a free and transparent site and it does not have any access restrictions or subscription requirements. And it can be accessed in Tamil and English.
Ithazhaham
Ithazhaham is a progject carried out by the Foundation to release online versions of current magazines within a short period from their publication date. This project will be implemented in collaboration with publishers of various magazines.
At the beginning all new releases of the selected magazines will be released. Later back issues which are not in digital format will be scanned and archived.
Currently Anpuneri and Gnanam directly reposit their magazines with the Foundation.
Vaasihasaalai
Vaasihasaalai is a project carried out by the Foundation to digitise and archive newspapers. This project is implemented in collaboration with publishers of various newspapers. And Sari Nihar, Nihari, Thina Murasu, Thinak Kathir, Thisai and Puthiya Poomi are some of the newspapers archived/being archived so far.
Newspapers are important source documents for researchers and historians. But back issues of newspapers are not easily accessible as only a few libraries and other institutions archive them. Digitizing and making them available online enhances the accessibility. Thus the Foundation operates a separate program focussing on digitizing newspapers.
Currently, the biggest size we are able to digitize is A3. Because of that, we have not started to digitize newspapers of bigger sizes.
Muslim Archive
The Tamil speaking Muslim community in Sri Lanka has a unique way of life, history, culture, and religion. A large part of Tamil literature in Sri Lanka has be created by and about Mulsims. The current priority of the Muslim Archive is to collect, catalog and share published books and articles. The next step is to collect images, audio, video and to develop a comprehensive archive.
Upcountry Archive
The objective Noolaham Upcountry Archive is to collect, catalog, and share works by and about the Upcountry Tamils. Upcountry Tamils contribution to the Sri Lankan Tamil literature has grown significantly in recent times. The text documents, the oral history and literature, culture, arts, handicrafts, and literature needs to be documented. A multimedia approach (text, images, video, audio) is necessary to amaze a comprehensive collection.
East Archive
Dalit Archive
The Dalit literature movement is a major stream in modern Tamil literature. The Dalit Archive will be a special collection. The aim is to collect information regarding the Dalits struggle for human rights, culture, arts, and handicrafts. The long term vision is to create a comprehensive multimedia (text, images, audio, video) archive.
Feminist Archive
The objective of the Noolaham Feminist Archive is to collect, catalog, and share Sri Lankan Tamil sources about feminism, women rights and women. This will be a special collection. This project was initiated with the support of Women Development Center. The long term vision is to create a comprehensive multimedia encyclopedia (articles, books, images, audio, video) of Tamil speaking women in Sri Lanka.
Law Archive
The objective of Noolaham Law Archive is to collect, catalog, and share Tamil sources in the subject area of Law. Historically, there have been different local law systems applied in Jaffna, Batticolo, and by Muslims. Multitude of documents exist regarding these systems. There are extended discussion regarding these systems. By documenting these system, we would be able get a better understanding about the social dynamics of the Sri Lankan Tamil society. The experts and researchers in this field will be engaged in this project.
Noolaham : Information Services
Valai Peddaham
Internet has been widely used among Sri Lankan Tamil speaking communities for last 20 years. Tamil diaspora have decided to use Internet to express their opinions easily. Since they lived in various countries who speak various languages, it influenced them to write in those languages. At the same time, next generation of Tamil diaspora was forced to speak various languages as their mother tongue and they write about their life status and community back ground in various languages. Because of this, there are many websites related to Tamil in various languages now. Those websites are running continuously. Currently, there are thousands of Tamil websites with Tamil blogs which was introduced later.
Noolaham Valaipeddakam program is to categorize these Tamil websites and blogs and displays in the single website based on languages, sectors and various classifications. At the same time, they consistently documented as much as possible. Tamil speaking community has experienced that, there are many websites related to Tamil were lost with all the data and badly missed important information. To avoid these circumstances there is a plan to document the Tamil related websites under discussion as part of Noolaham Valaipeddakam program.
Tharavuthalankal
Creating online database - organized collection - for tamil speaking communities related elements in varieos social levels. Tamil libraries (Town counsil libraries, Pradesa saba libraries, Private libraries, Reading rooms) , Educational organizations (Universities, Technical colleges, National college of Education, Schools ) , Publishers (News papers, Magazines, Publishing houses and Writers) , Places of worship (Hindu temples, Christian churches, Mosgues, Religious Organizations) , Other Social organizations (Political parties, Activist organizations, Villege level organizations, Sports clubs, Non - government organizations) are include the database.
Northern province (Jaffna, vavuniya, mannar, Mullaitivu, Kilinochchi) , Eastern province (Trincomalle, Batticallo, Ampara) , Central Province (kandy, Mattale, Kekala, Baddulla, Nuvareliya) , Other provinces (Colombo, Purttalam) Districts are tamil speaking communities living mostly. Database mainly incldes these districts related Information.
In out of Srilanka, European Countries (England, Ireland, Swissland, Netherland, Germany, France, Italy) , Scandinavian Countries (Norway, Sweedon, Finland, Denmark) , North Americal countries (United states of America, Canada) , Australian counties (Australia, Newsland) , East Asian countries (Singapore, Malaysia) , Middle East countries and India are identified srilankan tamil speaking communities related countries.
