Toronto mayor John Tory and Northern province chief minister Justice C. V. Vigneswaran signed a Memorandum of Understanding last year. Economic development, education, governance and library services were selected as key areas for cooperation. The focus of library services as one of the four core areas demonstrate the critical role libraries can play in reconstruction and reconciliation.
Councillor Neethan Shan has been instrumental in developing an action plan based on the high level MOU. Noolaham Canada members participated in the initial community consultations. We received input from librarians, activists and users on the ground and provided a detail feedback to Neethan about the library needs of Northern Sri Lanka. He noted that the input was useful and that he would share the input with the provincial administration.
On April 22, 2018, at the Malvern public library, Toronto Jaffna Partnership Library Initiative was launched. Mayor John Tory, Toronto chief librarian Vickery Bowles, Councillor Neethan Shan among others participated in the event. The event started with the symbolic exchange of books published in North and Toronto.
Speaking at the event Mayor John Tory noted various accomplishments and contributions of the Toronto Tamil community. Vickery Bowles noted the important role libraries can play in building an interconnected global community.
The Library Initiative seeks to engage youth in ten Toronto libraries to create awareness about Toronto library services, provide opportunities for them to learn about their heritage, to connect with youth in Jaffna and to involve them in digitization and documentation projects. They will also do fundraising to enhance library services in the Northern province. Canadian Tamil Youth Development Centre is partnering to lead this engagement.
Neethan noted that needs assessment is ongoing. The Jaffna administration is compiling list of must have Tamil books for all libraries. Decision about how to acquire those books will be made after receiving that list. We believe Tamil community world over can provide input in creating a list of must have Tamil books.
Digitization, documentation and archiving as well as technology transfer are noted by Neethan as key components of the Library Initiative. He recognized the work done by Noolaham Foundation and offered to work with us in developing the next steps.
We believe Toronto – Jaffna partnership, despite the jurisdictional, bureaucratic, political and organizational challenges can be a model for cultural and knowledge exchange. We look forward to working with the Toronto – Jaffna Partnership Library Initiative to bring tangible results to people of Sri Lanka and Canada.