Template:All Projects/Year/2020

Noolaham Digital Library Collection Development 2020

Project Number	NF/PG/2020/0001	Grant Agency / Donors	Noolaham Foundation	Project Owner	Rathina Iyer Pathmanaba Iyer
Project Mentor	Rathina Iyer Pathmanaba Iyer	Project Locations	Jaffna	Project Period	2020
Stakeholders	Staff and Volunteers of Noolaham Foundation

This is an annual project undertaken by Noolaham Foundation. Under this project, documents lent and gifted to Noolaham by writers and collectors of documents, documents gathered via the various projects conducted by Noolaham, documents that were left out during previous projects conducted by Noolaham and documents that need to be added to the existing collections and multimedia documents are documented. In 2020, 13, 000 documents were uploaded on the websites of Noolaham and Avanaham.

• Full Report

Audio Books Project 2020

Project Number	NF/PG/2020/0002	Grant Agency / Donors	Dr. Senthilkumaran, Natkeeran L Kanthan and Subakaran Balasubramaniam	Project Owner	Natkeeran L Kanthan
Project Mentor	Natkeeran L Kanthan	Project Locations	Jaffna	Project Period	2020
Stakeholders	Staff and Volunteers of Noolaham Foundation

This audio book project has been undertaken with the view to documenting via audio recording knowledge bases that can be accessed by differently abled members of the Tamil speaking communities.

• Full Report

Thodarpakam Cataloguing and Digitization

Project Number	NF/PG/2020/0003	Grant Agency / Donors	British Library	Project Owner	Natkeeran L Kanthann
Project Mentor	Natkeeran L Kanthan	Project Locations	Jaffna	Project Period	2020
Stakeholders	Staff and Volunteers of Noolaham Foundation

When the Swmai Gnanapragasar Memorial Noolaham in Nallur came forward to help Noolaham Foundation to digitize the Manuscripts housed in their library, they also requested Noolaham Foundation to digitize the nearly 20, 000 books kept in their library. This project evolved out of the collaboration between the two institutions. As the first step, Thodarpagam had already catalogued 5000 books under another project. As a continuation of that project, this project was undertaken by Noolaham Foundation. As the first step, the inputs that had already been catalogued were retrieved. This project was designed in such a way to provide training to a librarian in cataloguing and to create a site that would include an online catalogue using the DRUPAL software.

• Full Report

Early Tamil Works

Project Number	NF/PG/2020/0004	Grant Agency / Donors	Noolaham Foundation	Project Owner	Natkeeran L Kanthan
Project Mentor	Mayooranathan Ratnavelpillai	Project Locations	Sri Lanka	Project Period	2020
Stakeholders	Staff and Volunteers of Noolaham Foundation

Noolaham Foundation has undertaken an initiative called “Old Documents Related to the Tamil-speaking Communities” in order to catalogue, preserve and provide access to documents about the Tamil speaking communities in Sri Lanka published before 1900. Initiatives such archive.org and hathitrust.org have made available in the public domain publications from Sri Lanka and information about those publications. The Jaffna Protestant Digital Library that Noolaham collaborated with another group provided a catalyst to this initiative.

• Interim Report - 2023
• Ongoing

Marapurimaikalai Thedi - In Search of Heritage Exhibition

Project Number	NF/PG/2020/0005	Grant Agency / Donors	British Library	Project Owner	Kopinath Thillainathan
Project Mentor	Kopinath Thillainathan	Project Locations	Jaffna	Project Period	2020
Stakeholders	Staff and Volunteers of Noolaham Foundation

As part of the documentation component of the initiatives undertaken by Noolaham Foundation, a two-day exhibition under the theme “Maraburimaikalai Thedi” (in search of heritage rights) was held in the Prayer Hall of Jaffna Hindu College on the 22nd and 23rd of February 2020. Siragugal Amaiyam of Jaffna collaborated with Noolaham Foundation in organizing this exhibition. The exhibition provided information about digitizing and preserving Ola manuscripts, hand-written manuscripts and printed documents. Many old and rare documents were kept on display during the exhibition.

• Full Report

Revise and streamlining organizational structure, strategy, policy and process

Project Number	NF/GP/2020/0006	Grant Agency / Donors	Noolaham Foundation	Project Owner	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan
Project Mentor	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan	Project Locations	Jaffna	Project Period	2020
Stakeholders	Staff and Volunteers of Noolaham Foundation

This project is undertaken with the objective of bringing about reforms in the institutional structure of Noolaham Foundation and revising its strategies and plans.

• Full Report

Evelyn Ratnam Library Documentation

Project Number	NF/GP/2020/0007	Grant Agency / Donors	Ayothi Library Service	Project Owner	Kopinath Thillainathan
Project Mentor	Kopinath Thillainathan	Project Locations	Jaffna	Project Period	2020 July - 2021 August
Stakeholders	Evelyn Ratnam Library, Staff of Noolaham Foundation

Evelyn Ratnam Institute for Inter-Cultural Studies is located in Jaffna. It was the late Dr. James D.Ratnam who established this Foundation in memory of Mr. Ratnam's late wife Evelyn Vijayaratne Ratnam. Dr. Ratnam had a collection of books and research papers they had collected through his contacts attached to various universities. Educationists, leading legal figures and businessmen who were researchers always went to him for advice and used his library. Dr. Ratnam later donated a collection of his books to Jaffna College, Vaddukoddai. He also set up a building in Jaffna to store books that can be used for research purposes. This building was named Evelyn Ratnam Library. It is currently under the governance of the Board of Directors of Jaffna College.Noolaham Foundation is committed to digitizing and preserving collections related to Tamil-speaking communities in Sri Lanka. In order to meet this objective, Noolaham Foundation is engaged in collecting documents found in libraries operating among Tamil speaking communities in Sri Lanka and archiving and preserving documents collected by individuals belonging to these communities. As part of a series of archiving initiatives, efforts are being made to gather and preserve documents related to the history, politics, economy, culture, education, literature and art of the Tamil-speaking communities in Sri Lanka found in the Evelyn Ratnam Library.

• Full Report - 2021/2022

Vaasihasalai 2020

Project Number	NF/GP/2020/0008	Grant Agency / Donors	Noolaham Foundation	Project Owner	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan
Project Mentor	Rathina Iyer Pathmanaba Iyer	Project Locations	Sri Lanka	Project Period	2020
Stakeholders	Staff and Volunteers of Noolaham Foundation

Noolaham has been documenting newspaper and magazines from 2005 to date. As part of this initiative, some of the early newspapers and magazines that emerged from the Tamil-speaking communities in Sri Lanka were documented. As continuation of this initiative, it has become an important activity of Noolaham to document newspapers and magazines that are published today. A special feature of this initiative is that contemporary newspapers and magazines are digitized and made available to the readers within a short period of time from their publication. An objective of this project is to provide the readers the ambience of a library in the virtual space. Among the written documents that have a wider reach among the masses newspapers and magazines are important. They attempt to influence the thinking of the masses. We cannot undervalue the role played by newspapers and magazines in the past in the developments that took place in religious, social, political, economic and international spheres. Newspapers function as primary sources in the writing of history. In light of these roles newspapers have played and continue to play, it is important to collect and preserve them for the benefit of the future generations. This is an important initiative in the area of documentation. The Vaasikasalai Project is important to the historical existence of the Tamil speaking communities. This project can support the creation and preservation of a living culture of newspaper reading.

• Interim Report - 2023
• Ongoing

Open Education Resource 2020

Project Number	NF/GP/2020/0009	Grant Agency / Donors	Face	Project Owner	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan
Project Mentor	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan	Project Locations	Jaffna	Project Period	2020
Stakeholders	Staff and Volunteers of Noolaham Foundation

This project will be carried out as a continuation of the projects that were undertaken earlier to collect, document, digitize and provide open access to documents that are used for learning and teaching purposes in schools. These earlier projects aimed to support schools and the larger community in their educational pursuits. The documents that were collected, documented, digitized and made open access included documents available in Tamil that had already been made open access in Sri Lanka and other related documents for which permission was obtained. Descriptions of the documents composed in line with the standards followed by Noolaham Foundation were attached to the documents that were made available to the larger public

• Interim Report - 2020/2021/2022/2023
• Ongoing

Setup Upcountry Unit for Noolaham Foundation

Project Number	NF/GP/2020/0010	Grant Agency / Donors	Universal Printers ,Solidarity for Malayaham and Malayaga Makkal Onriyam	Project Owner	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan
Project Mentor	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan	Project Locations	Upcountry	Project Period	2020
Stakeholders	Staff and Volunteers of Noolaham Foundation

Establishing a center of Noolaham Foundation in Malaiyaham to carry out the activities of the Foundation in the region. This Center will facilitate the documentation of the documents associated with Malaiyaham and the important activities that take place in the region.

• Full Report

Upcountry Archive 2020

Project Number	NF/GP/2020/0011	Grant Agency / Donors	Action Change Things	Project Owner	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan
Project Mentor	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan	Project Locations	Upcountry	Project Period	2020
Stakeholders	Staff and Volunteers of Noolaham Foundation

This project is undertaken with the aim of documenting, digitizing, preserving and sharing documents and other sources related to the political, economic, social, and cultural histories of the Malaiyaham Tamil community and the lifestyle and value-systems of the people who belong to this community. This project is one among the special projects that focus on digitizing endangered documents, documents that have not been taken care of properly, documents that face negligence and documents and archives that are related to communities and groups on the margins and peripheral locations.

• Interim Report - 2020/2021

Muslim Archive 2020

Project Number	NF/GP/2020/0012	Grant Agency / Donors	Albayaan Arabic Foundation	Project Owner	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan
Project Mentor	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan	Project Locations	Sri Lanka	Project Period	2020
Stakeholders	Staff and Volunteers of Noolaham Foundation

This project is undertaken with the aim of documenting, digitizing, preserving and sharing documents and other sources related to the political, economic, social, and cultural histories of the Tamil-speaking Muslim communities in Sri Lanka and the lifestyle of the people who belong to these communities. Under this project, Noolaham Foundation collaborates with the Muslim community in creating an open-access, digitized social archive that will give a central place to documentation in the areas of arts, literature, culture, politics and education.

• Full Report - 2020/2021

Nool Theddam Digital Catalogue

Project Number	NF/GP/2020/0013	Grant Agency / Donors	Noolaham Foundation	Project Owner	Kopinath Thillainathan
Project Mentor	Kopinath Thillainathan	Project Locations	Jaffna	Project Period	2020
Stakeholders	Staff and Volunteers of Noolaham Foundation

migrated from Sri Lanka. Mr. N. Selvarajah, a librarian who was born in Anaikoddai, Jaffna and is residing presently in Luton in the UK, has brought out these catalogues since 2002.Writers from Sri Lanka have brought out thousands of books written in Tamil since the mid part of the nineteenth century. There have been no systematic records about these books so far. The primary objective of this initiative is to address this vacuum and document information pertaining to books published in print form by Sri Lankan writers and writers from the diaspora communities from Sri Lanka. The monographs that have been catalogued under this initiative are not subject to quality control. All the books received have been catalogued into lists of 1000 entries each.Some publications have not been added to this catalogue due to the nature of the medium in which they appeared. Pamphlets, drawings, hand-written documents, audio-visual tapes and CDs have not been included here. The catalogue also excludes anniversary publications, remembrance publications, souvenirs and magazines.However, special issues and stand-alone issues of magazines are included in this collection. In addition, some anniversary publications have been included since their content is significant and rich.

• Full Report

Digitization of Donated Documents 2020

Project Number	NF/GP/2020/0014	Grant Agency / Donors	Noolaham Foundation	Project Owner	Rathina Iyer Pathmanaba Iyer
Project Mentor	Rathina Iyer Pathmanaba Iyer	Project Locations	Jaffna	Project Period	2020
Stakeholders	Staff and Volunteers of Noolaham Foundation

Under this project, documents that are published from locations where the Sri Lankan Tamil-speaking diaspora communities live are documented and digitized. The documents that are gathered for this project include rare documents that shed light on the religious, social, political, economic and cultural lives of the diaspora communities.

• Interim Report - 2021/2022/2023
• Ongoing

Jaffna Uthayan Newspaper Digitization

Project Number	NF/GP/2020/0015	Grant Agency / Donors	Parthipan Paramsothy	Project Owner	Kopinath Thillainathan
Project Mentor	Kopinath Thillainathan	Project Locations	Jaffna	Project Period	2020
Stakeholders	Staff and Volunteers of Noolaham Foundation

Noolaham Foundation has undertaken a project to digitize the Uthayan Newspaper published from Jaffna. This newspaper helps readers become aware of the developments in the political scene in Sri Lanka, the country’s economic affairs, culture and social values.

• Full Report - 2022

Regional Documentation - Kilinochchi

Project Number	NF/GP/2020/0016	Grant Agency / Donors	Kili People	Project Owner	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan
Project Mentor	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan	Project Locations	Kilinochchi	Project Period	2020
Stakeholders	Staff and Volunteers of Noolaham Foundation

As part of creating the Kilinochchi Regional Archive, efforts are being made to document the history of the district, the traditions of the people who live there, their habits and cultural and artistic practices, the social structures and systems that are observed in the district, agriculture and other livelihood activities in which the people of the district engage, and institutions such as schools, places of worship, women’s organizations and community centers that are located in the district, the economic changes and development initiatives that took place in the district, the measures taken in the district toward ecological conservation and the challenges faced by the people of the district during the war.

• Interim Report - 2021/2022/2023
• Ongoing

Jaffna Protestant Digital Archive (EAP 835 & EAP 971)

Project Number	NNF/GP/2020/0017	Grant Agency / Donors	Noolaham Foundation	Project Owner	Thiruvarangan Mahendran
Project Mentor	Mayooranathan Ratnavelpillai	Project Locations	Jaffna	Project Period	2020
Stakeholders	Staff and Volunteers of Noolaham Foundation

A set of documents related to the American Ceylon Mission preserved at Jaffna College was digitized as part of a project led by Columbia University in the City of New York with the sponsorship provided by the British Library. Noolaham Foundation collaborated with Columbia University in this project. The objective of the current project is to bring out a compilation of the documents digitized under the project led by Columbia University.

• Full Report

Caste in Sri Lanka

Project Number	NF/GP/2020/0018	Grant Agency / Donors	Dalit Samuga Mempaddu Munnani	Project Owner	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan
Project Mentor	Shaseevan Ganeshananthan	Project Locations	Jaffna	Project Period	2020 -2021
Stakeholders	Staff and Volunteers of Noolaham Foundation

In Sri Lanka, there are three caste systems among the Sinhalese, Sri Lankan Tamils and Malaiyaha Tamils. This project titled as “Ilankaiyil Saathiyam” (Caste in Sri Lanka) attempts to document, preserve and disseminate documents related to caste among the Tamil-speaking communities in Sri Lanka. Caste-based practices observed among Sri Lankan Tamils, the way caste operates in this society, and the struggles against caste oppression have a long history in Sri Lanka. Resistance to caste-based oppression which in earlier times manifested via open agitations and non-violent and militant struggles that preceded the civil war, now continues in rather latent forms via activities such as construction of temples. Against such background, Noolaham Foundation has undertaken this project with the objective of collecting, documenting and disseminating documents related to caste among Tamil-speaking communities in Sri Lanka. It is expected that this project will be beneficial to initiatives that seek to create awareness in society against casteism, to educational and research projects that revolve around the question of caste and to anti-caste struggles.

It is recommended to collect the documents for the Caste in Sri Lanka project through Regional projects.

• Interim Report - 2020/2021

Documentation of Documentation process

Project Number	NF/GP/2020/0019	Grant Agency / Donors	Noolaham Foundation	Project Owner	Natkeeran L Kanthan
Project Mentor	Kopinath Thillainathan	Project Locations	Sri Lanka	Project Period	2020
Stakeholders	Staff and Volunteers of Noolaham Foundation

Noolaham Foundation and Digital Library, Archives, Museum, Memory Institutional Communities are developed Extensive Knowledge, Skills and abilities in various portions. Similarly, Noolaham Foundation Document the Documentary of Noolaham Founation & it's Services. Bring this open access to public Communities also very important. Accordingly, The program aims to document the activities of Noolaham Foundation Including Documentation, Digital Preservation, Digital Library and Research based Subjects. The vision of Document the Noolaham Foundation Related Matters. Documentation of Documentation open access, Institutional knowledge, Preservation activities and Noolaham Foundation Projects.The above documentation is essential for the fulfillment of various purposes such as Community based practices. When documenting Tamil speaking Communities, it is important to document the written records published in Tamil from those communities related to them Noolaham foundation has been carrying out programs. Thus what are the activities of Noolaham Foundation especially Documentation, digital preservation, Digital library related matters Documenting becomes important. According to that, we need to document the knowledge and share is important. It will also easier to describe Library activities by providing the community with such documented records.this type of documentation can also be used to train affiliates of the Noolaham Foundation.

• Interim Report - 2022/2023