Program and Projects

Noolaham Foundation’s Program and Project sector is responsible for developing and executing its various projects. All projects are managed as a single Program. Majority of Noolaham Foundaton’s projects are Documentation and Collections Development focused, including the core Collections Development process. Program and Project Management is the responsibility of the Program Manager.

Program Focus Areas

Noolaham Foundation works in four intervention areas which align with its four objectives. The four areas are Research and Collections Development, Documentation and Digital Preservation, Digital Library and Digital Archive, and Building Communities of Practice. Together, they provide a knowledge infrastructure for Sri Lankan Tamil speaking communities with varying needs, capacities and aspirations.

• Documentation and Collections Development
• Digital Processing and Preservation
• Digital Library, Archive and Information Services
• Building Communities of Practice

Focus I: Documentation and Collection Development

Noolaham Foundation aims to document a wide range of subjects through innovative collection development strategies, documentation initiatives and research based approaches. Noolaham Foundation collects, arranges and describes the knowledge resources objectively, within a social-justice and an ethical framework. Subjects include, science and technologies, trades and crafts, education, public health, human rights, arts and culture, rituals and beliefs, language and literature, landscapes and environment, biodiversity, ethnography and race relations, social structures, genealogy, kinship patterns, archeology and history etc. The main goal and impact of this work is to ensure the preservation of records for future generations, and to enhance access to these records for worldwide Tamil speaking communities through participatory contribution and collective actions. Textual, oral, visual and artifact knowledge resources are documented and digitally preserved. This includes both published and archival records. There is a huge volume of materials, including monographs (books), periodicals, newspapers, booklets, reports, souvenirs, felicitations, mementoes, posters, leaflets, invitations, factsheets, dissertations, abstracts, olaisuvadi (ola manuscripts), diaries, letters and other hand written materials, audio, video, photo and images, maps, drawings, web sites and electronic resources. Digitization, multimedia documentation and dataset development are three main methodologies used to digitally capture knowledge resources.

Noolaham Foundation gives specific resources and consideration towards the following collections:

• Muslim Archive
• Upcountry Archive
• Women Archive
• Dalit Archive / Anti-Caste Struggle
• Vedar Archive
• LGBTQ+ Archive
• Minorities of North East

Focus II: Digital Processing and Preservation

The second focus area is digitization, digital conversion, digital processing and long term digital preservation according to international standards. Noolaham Foundation uses manual, sheet-feed scanning and camera scanning as appropriate for digitization of textual material. We have developed the capacity to edit and produce quality media outputs such as oral histories and documentaries. We are currently developing digital conversion capacity to convert analog audio/video cassette into digital files.

Digital preservation is much more than scanning. It requires advanced digital technological infrastructure to develop, store, preserve and make accessible high quality resources for a wide range of uses from reading/using online to machine learning. Investing and building the digital processing and preservation capacity will enable Noolaham Foundation to establish itself as a leader in this area in South Asia.

Focus III: Digital Library, Archive and Information Services

The third focus area is related to open access, knowledge discovery and knowledge mobilization. Noolaham Foundation aims to support maximum online open access to all of its resources via an easy to use multilingual (default Tamil) platform. Currently, Noolaham Foundation is working on migrating the content from its various platforms into Islandora 8 powered next generation platform. Any authorized user from anywhere will be able to contribute in building the content. Further, the platform is envisioned as a research information system to help researchers/students/activists etc and function as an entry-point for interactions between intellectuals. Describing, classifying and organizing knowledge/information is critical for its discovery and use. Noolaham Foundation seeks to apply emerging library and archival science principles in its digital libraries and archives. The key idea behind knowledge mobilization is taking archives to the people. Taking the knowledge resources to the users and enabling its active use. Reference services, research support and online/offline knowledge outreach services are key knowledge mobilization oriented services.

Focus IV: Building Communities of Practice

There is a need to decentralize and democratize libraries, archives and museums - the memory institutions to serve the needs of diverse communities. There are many community libraries and archives involved in the Sri Lankan and Tamil speaking communities context. Noolaham Foundation seeks to engage and collaborate with these organizations at the grassroots and global levels. Collaborations include knowledge/skill/equipment sharing, capacities building and depositing/hosting materials. As a self-archiving endeavor, Noolaham Foundation considers the institution and its organizational knowledge as a key output to the community. Further, we seek to engage with professional fields such as library science, archival studies, museology as well as traditional institutions.

Noolaham Foundation Services & Capabilities

Noolaham Foundation delivers the following services to its users and communities. Noolaham Foundation capabilities are built to develop and support these services.

Noolaham Digital Library (noolaham.org)

Noolaham Digital Library is the largest Tamil digital library online with more than 97,000 print resources. The digital library serves students, researchers, historians, activists and the public. Significant collections include:

• Special Collections (as noted above)
• Newspapers
• Magazines
• Books
• Commemorative publications
• Palm-Leaf Manuscripts

Aavanaham Multimedia Archive (aavanaham.org)

Multimedia Archives supports preserving and providing access images, video, audio and electronic media. In addition, it supports Noolaham Foundations archival collections. Significant collections include:

• Open Educational Resources
• Oral Histories
• Audio Books
• Ephemera
• Thematic Collections
• Image Audio Video Collections
• Web Archive
• Village Documentation

Open Data Sets

Open Data is the driving force for Machine Learning technologies. Open data also provides valuable information for NGOs and governments to design their programs. Currently, the following datasets are provided by Noolaham Foundation:

• Bibliographic Dictionary
• Organizations
• Places
• Open Tamil Texts

Institutional/Personal Repository Services

Noolaham Foundation provides digitization and archiving services for schools, non-profits, and cultural organizations with the aim to build open access and interoperable repositories. Our aim is to help institutions preserve and share their knowledge bases and memory for the long term. The following institutional repositories projects have been completed to date: Women’s Education and Research Centre, International Center for Ethnic Studies Digitization, Colombo Royal College (a DVD was released), Jaffna Hindu College (a DVD was released) and Jaffna Vembadi Girls' High School (a DVD was released).

Virtual Reference Service

Virtual Reference service is an important constituent of Noolaham Foundation services. Students, teachers, researchers, or anyone can ask a question or resource via email or form. We aim to provide real-time virtual reference service in the new future.

Research Support

Lack of open access and lack of digital literacy are key barriers for education and research in Sri Lanka. Majority of students, teachers, researchers, and scholars do not have access to journal articles because they are behind high cost paywalls. Noolaham Foundation Research Support service aims to fill that gap by linking students and emerging researchers to resources and experts. The target audience for this service are final year undergrad, masters or phd students. They must be enrolled in a program or have demonstrated a research interest.

Knowledge Mobilization Support

Though Noolaham Foundation and other organizations have developed significant amounts of knowledge resources, their use is limited for various reasons. For instance, many students, teachers, researchers, policy makers, activists, and the public may be unaware about these resources. They may not have the skills to use these resources effectively. Different delivery mechanisms such as print or CD or offline versions may be needed. Taking the resources to the users via workshops, outreach events, networking, offline media etc are part of the knowledge mobilization support services.

Collections Development

Noolaham Foundation’s Collections Development aims to build useful collections to serve the knowledge needs of the diverse Sri Lankan Tamil speaking communities. It balances the need to preserve the diverse historic and cultural materials with the need to provide more current educational, health, legal and vocational information. It also includes the creation of collection development policy, and collection assessment.

Collections Development Sub-Committee

The Collections Development Sub-Committee focuses on building collections to represent and serve the needs of diverse Sri Lankan Tamil Speaking communities via an open, participatory and inclusive process. The role of the Collections Committee is to provide support and expertise to the Program Manager and to each other regarding the mission. `

Membership The Collections Committee shall in minimum consist of the following five members:

• Collections Development process mentor from Governance Board
• Program Manager (Secretary)
• Upcountry Archive Representative
• Women Archive Representative
• Muslim Archive Representative

In addition, the committee is open to members representing the following special collections:

• Anti-Caste Struggle Archive/Dalit Archive
• Vedar Archive
• LGBTQ+ Archive
• Minorities of North East Archive

Members are appointed for 2 years renewable terms. The committee must be approved by the Governance Board. Goals

• Provide feedback and help develop/evolve the Collections Development Policy
• Be advocate for the Special Collections, be the communities’ voices
• Identify, link, network potential works, content sources, content contributors, collaborators and partners, volunteers
• Provide feedback as requested for projects.

Meetings and Reporting The Collections Committee shall meet quarterly. It reports to the Governance Board.

Communication NF : Process 23 : Collections Development email thread and slack channel

Collections Development Policy

The goal of the Noolaham Foundation’s Collection development policy is to give clear directions for developing and creating collections via its Program and Projects. Collecting, preserving and providing access to materials is a resource constrained activity, thus prioritizing materials based on objective criteria becomes necessary.

Noolaham Foundation collects and develops materials created by, about and related to Sri Lankan Tamil speaking communities. This is a basic policy principle that applies to all our collections with the exception of Tamil reference resources. All public domain or permissions obtained Tamil reference resources, specifically encyclopedias, dictionaries and bibliographies are preserved and made accessible. Noolaham Foundation recognizes the gaps and silences in its own and mainstream archives and libraries of many marganizlied communities’ resources, including those of Women, Upcountry Tamils, Muslim, LGBTQ, Vedar, Minotiries of North East and oppressed caste communities. Collections via Program and Projects is one of the main avenues within the organization to repair those gaps and give voice to the marginalized. Thus, developing a diverse collection representing the diverse communities Noolaham Foundation represents and serves is at the core of Collections Development Policy. Balancing the need for educational, economical, and development focused resources with historical and cultural resources is also a major consideration. Noolaham Foundation recognizes that those with funding resources, influence/power and organizational capacity are better represented via published resources and have the capacity to support documentation projects. Thus, an intentional and institutional framework is needed to allocate attention and resources towards the marginalized voices.

Examples of allocating attention and resources towards the marginalized voices:

• Prioritize processing and access of marginalized communities’ resources.
• Dedicated Staff Person - If resources about/by a particular community or archive is under represented, then having a dedicated staff person for that archive will help.
• Developing Archival/Oral/Visual/Artifact Resources - If there is a lack of published resources by/about a particular community, then focusing on oral, visual, archival and artifact documentation can help.
• Equitable Collection Development Resource Allocation - If the main office is located in one place, then there is a likelihood that resources from that region would receive the most attention and resources. Having more equitable collection development staff and volunteer resources to represent diverse communities can help balance that.
• Representation - Collection Development Committee needs to have diverse voices represented and actively providing input.
• Develop accessible formats such as audio books for print books and transcripts for audio/video resources.

The following criteria is used as a general guideline to evaluate a material at the item level.

• Is a Special Collection item - 20
• Information Value
  • Rare Resource (ola manuscript, inscription, unique folklore, rare artifact) - 25
  • Educational & Scientific - 15
  • Public Health, Public Policy, Human Rights - 15
  • Historic and Cultural Value - 15
  • Artistic and Aesthetic Value - 10
  • Social or Spiritual Value - 10
• Use Value
  • Has use value to a wider audience (i.e text books, public health info) - 15
  • Has use value to specific or limited audience (i.e memoirs, anniversary publications) - 10
• At-Risk item
  • High Risk (only one copy of the work exists, endangered due to external factors) - 25
  • Low Risk (i.e published work with known holdings) - 5
• Permission Obtained - 5

Collections Specialists Network

Collections development work is undertaken by a network of collections specialists spread across Sri Lanka, including Upcountry, East, Mannar and Jaffna. These specialists undertake the work according to the collection development policy, with focus on special collections. Their work is compensated based on work completed and transferred. The work undertaken by Collections Specialists can include:

• Writing biography based on original research
• Writing biography based on secondary reference
• Writing an organizational profile based on original research
• Writing an organizational profile based on secondary reference
• Writing a magazine/newspaper article
• Writing a research article
• Creating research guides
• Oral history recording (personal histories)
• Oral history recordings (research topics)
• Own photography - 100 selected photographs
• Own videography - 1 hr selected recording
• Graphic work
• Event recording - per event
• Field research essay
• Source collection - 25 published works
• Source collection - 100 archival records
• Metadata creation (for archival records)
• Audio and video collections from online sources (with permission)
• Dataset development - 100 records per dataset
• Completed Short Documentary (20 - 40 mins)
• Completed In-Depth Documentary (1 - 2 hrs)
• Develop, organize and execute community event

Note that all original works created for Noolaham Foundation will be released under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) license. The creator/author will be fully credited as per the license.

Research based Documentation

Research based Documentation is an evolving capability for Noolaham Foundation. Noolaham Foundation has recognized the importance of having researchers, subject matter experts as part of the documentation and collection development teams to shape respective processes.

Multimedia Documentation

Multimedia documentation is an important methodology used by Noolaham Foundation to record knowledge resources not covered by textual sources. This is a field work based approach. Oral histories, photography, videography as well as complete documentaries are produced to document the oral, visual, artifact or other tacit knowledge sources. Traditional trades and crafts documentation, village documentation are examples of projects that have used this methodology.

Oral History Recording

Oral history is one of the main methologies to capture non-textual knowledge sources. Noolaham Foundation has extensive experience and capability to conduct, record and publish oral histories.

Web Archiving

Noolaham Foundaiton has the capacity to archive and make discoverable websites, blogs, forums, social media such as twitter. Though Noolaham has capacity, it has not been one of the active projects

Cataloging & Metadata Services

Noolaham Foundation has capability to create standard compliant library catalogues and archival descriptions. This is also offered as an external service at cost recovery to other organizations.

Digital Repository and Discovery Mechanisms

Noolaham Foundation has extensive experience with open source digital library (Islandora stack), digital archive (Atom) and content management systems (Drupal, MediaWiki). In addition, it has experience with learning platforms such as Moodle. These capabilities are used internally as well as offered externally for fee for select projects.

Digitization and Digital Conversion

Noolaham Foundation has the capability to digitize print materials according to international standards. It uses manual, sheet-feed and camera scanning as appropriate for digitization. It is also developing capability to convert analog audio/video cassette into digital files.

Digital Preservation

Digital preservation is much more than digitization. From checking file integrity to taking adequate backups, there is a range of standards and practices that needs to be followed for digital preservation. Noolaham Foundation has adopted and implemented NSDA Levels of Digital Preservation standards.

Workshops and Events

The Noolaham Foundation events program focuses on building volunteer communities and educating the wider public on various issues including information literacy, digital library usage and digital preservation. Lectures, seminars, workshops and exhibitions are conducted through this program.

Publications

Noolaham Foundation publishes books, newsletters, a magazine and a journal. This program is a part of the outreach strategy of the Foundation and contributes towards raising awareness and documentation. Noolaham Foundation also reprints important, rare, out-of-print books.

Collection Development

Noolaham Foundation’s Collections Development aims to build useful collections to serve the knowledge needs of the diverse Sri Lankan Tamil speaking communities. It balances the need to preserve the diverse historic and cultural materials with the need to provide more current educational, health, legal and vocational information. It also includes the creation of collection development policy, and collection assessment.

Collections Development Sub-Committee

The Collections Development Sub-Committee focuses on building collections to represent and serve the needs of diverse Sri Lankan Tamil Speaking communities via an open, participatory and inclusive process. The role of the Collections Committee is to provide support and expertise to the Program Manager and to each other regarding the mission. `

Membership The Collections Committee shall in minimum consist of the following five members:

• Collections Development process mentor from Governance Board
• Program Manager (Secretary)
• Upcountry Archive Representative
• Women Archive Representative
• Muslim Archive Representative

In addition, the committee is open to members representing the following special collections:

• Anti-Caste Struggle Archive/Dalit Archive
• Vedar Archive
• LGBTQ+ Archive
• Minorities of North East Archive

Members are appointed for 2 years renewable terms. The committee must be approved by the Governance Board. Goals

• Provide feedback and help develop/evolve the Collections Development Policy
• Be advocate for the Special Collections, be the communities’ voices
• Identify, link, network potential works, content sources, content contributors, collaborators and partners, volunteers
• Provide feedback as requested for projects.

Meetings and Reporting The Collections Committee shall meet quarterly. It reports to the Governance Board.

Communication NF : Process 23 : Collections Development email thread and slack channel

Collections Development Policy

The goal of the Noolaham Foundation’s Collection development policy is to give clear directions for developing and creating collections via its Program and Projects. Collecting, preserving and providing access to materials is a resource constrained activity, thus prioritizing materials based on objective criteria becomes necessary.

Noolaham Foundation collects and develops materials created by, about and related to Sri Lankan Tamil speaking communities. This is a basic policy principle that applies to all our collections with the exception of Tamil reference resources. All public domain or permissions obtained Tamil reference resources, specifically encyclopedias, dictionaries and bibliographies are preserved and made accessible. Noolaham Foundation recognizes the gaps and silences in its own and mainstream archives and libraries of many marganizlied communities’ resources, including those of Women, Upcountry Tamils, Muslim, LGBTQ, Vedar, Minotiries of North East and oppressed caste communities. Collections via Program and Projects is one of the main avenues within the organization to repair those gaps and give voice to the marginalized. Thus, developing a diverse collection representing the diverse communities Noolaham Foundation represents and serves is at the core of Collections Development Policy. Balancing the need for educational, economical, and development focused resources with historical and cultural resources is also a major consideration. Noolaham Foundation recognizes that those with funding resources, influence/power and organizational capacity are better represented via published resources and have the capacity to support documentation projects. Thus, an intentional and institutional framework is needed to allocate attention and resources towards the marginalized voices.

Examples of allocating attention and resources towards the marginalized voices:

• Prioritize processing and access of marginalized communities’ resources.
• Dedicated Staff Person - If resources about/by a particular community or archive is under represented, then having a dedicated staff person for that archive will help.
• Developing Archival/Oral/Visual/Artifact Resources - If there is a lack of published resources by/about a particular community, then focusing on oral, visual, archival and artifact documentation can help.
• Equitable Collection Development Resource Allocation - If the main office is located in one place, then there is a likelihood that resources from that region would receive the most attention and resources. Having more equitable collection development staff and volunteer resources to represent diverse communities can help balance that.
• Representation - Collection Development Committee needs to have diverse voices represented and actively providing input.
• Develop accessible formats such as audio books for print books and transcripts for audio/video resources.

The following criteria is used as a general guideline to evaluate a material at the item level.

• Is a Special Collection item - 20
• Information Value
  • Rare Resource (ola manuscript, inscription, unique folklore, rare artifact) - 25
  • Educational & Scientific - 15
  • Public Health, Public Policy, Human Rights - 15
  • Historic and Cultural Value - 15
  • Artistic and Aesthetic Value - 10
  • Social or Spiritual Value - 10
• Use Value
  • Has use value to a wider audience (i.e text books, public health info) - 15
  • Has use value to specific or limited audience (i.e memoirs, anniversary publications) - 10
• At-Risk item
  • High Risk (only one copy of the work exists, endangered due to external factors) - 25
  • Low Risk (i.e published work with known holdings) - 5
• Permission Obtained - 5

Collections Specialists Network

Collections development work is undertaken by a network of collections specialists spread across Sri Lanka, including Upcountry, East, Mannar and Jaffna. These specialists undertake the work according to the collection development policy, with focus on special collections. Their work is compensated based on work completed and transferred. The work undertaken by Collections Specialists can include:

• Writing biography based on original research
• Writing biography based on secondary reference
• Writing an organizational profile based on original research
• Writing an organizational profile based on secondary reference
• Writing a magazine/newspaper article
• Writing a research article
• Creating research guides
• Oral history recording (personal histories)
• Oral history recordings (research topics)
• Own photography - 100 selected photographs
• Own videography - 1 hr selected recording
• Graphic work
• Event recording - per event
• Field research essay
• Source collection - 25 published works
• Source collection - 100 archival records
• Metadata creation (for archival records)
• Audio and video collections from online sources (with permission)
• Dataset development - 100 records per dataset
• Completed Short Documentary (20 - 40 mins)
• Completed In-Depth Documentary (1 - 2 hrs)
• Develop, organize and execute community event

Note that all original works created for Noolaham Foundation will be released under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) license. The creator/author will be fully credited as per the license.