Timeline

Noolaham Foundation Timeline v1.0

1998-2004

• 13 Sri Lankan Tamil books were added at Project Madurai by 1999 by Pathmanaba Iyer
• Various individuals digitized a few books and made them available online.
• Project Eelanool, the project solely dedicated to digitize Sri Lankan Tamil publications, was started by Muralitharan Mauran and T. Kopinath
• In the same year, yet another Sri Lankan Tamil archive project, E-Suvadi, was also started.

2005

• Project Noolaham, emphasizing collective and voluntary efforts and promoting openness, was started in January 2005 by Muralitharan Mauran and Thillainathan Kopinath
• Collectiveness: Earlier digitization efforts were incorporated into Project Noolaham. Thus contributions made by R. Pathmanaba Iyer towards Project Madurai (circa 1999) and ebooks created by Eelanool during 2004 (T. Kopinath and M. Mauran) were included at Project Noolaham. Noolaham, from the beginning, strived to avoid duplication of efforts and stressed collectiveness for synergy.
• Voluntary Efforts: Inspired by Project Madurai, Noolaham was voluntary efforts. Direct monetary donations were not accepted.
• Openness: Earlier
• Server space of SEDOT was utilized. All ebooks were typed in by volunteers and the web site was created by basic html pages.
• The first group of volunteers to join the project: S. Thevaraja, K. T. Pratheepa, P.Eelanathan, R. PathmanabaIyer, K. Raminitharan, MathyKandasamy, L. Natkeeran, Kanaga Sritharan
• The first server for Noolaham was bought by Eelanathan by August 2005
• Pathmanaba Iyer also joined as a volunteer and advisor of the project.

2006

• Until the end of 2006, almost all the inputs were typed in by volunteers. The process was slow, and only a few hundred books were added to the library.
• Kopinath introduced scanning as a means of digitizingthe publications by the end of 2006.
• PathmanabaIyer and A. Srikanthalakshmy’s efforts to utilize funds to accelerate digitization - the first funded project began in 2006.

2007

• Since 2007, direct monetary contributions were accepted.
• Shaseevan started vast level of digitizing work for Noolaham. Its 3 times of existed work of project Noolaham.
• The first fund-raiser organized by P. Piratheepan.
• A space for office, and preliminary equipment arranged by V. Jasikaran.
• Until mid-2007, Project Noolaham maintained a manually created website using HTML pages and links. In June 2007, Joomla was selected as the content management system and P.Piratheepan took over the responsibility of creating pages for the site.
• After a couple of months Mediawiki software was installed and the site was transformed again. Muralitharan Mauran was instrumental in selecting these content management systems.
• The structure of the wiki site was formed by Kopinath and many volunteers including Piratheepan and Mathubhashini contributed as well.
• Vinodh Rajan integrated various web tools to the site.
• N. Selvarajah gave permission to add details about books from his Nooltheddam volumes at the wiki, and extracted the relevant information and sent them to volunteers.
• In July 2007, Shaseevan took over as the project coordinator. (Project Noolaham Number after 406) The approach of Project Noolaham was transformed from volunteer-centered to project-centered, to increase the efficiency.
• Mr. Teliwatte Joseph offered to digitize his vast collection of magazines.
• The first collaborative digitization began when Project Noolaham digitized the entire publication of the Women's Education and Research Center (WERC) in 2007.
• Shaseevan modified the digitizing method and included editing.
• Other printed materials, including magazines, newspapers and research papers, were also added to the library.

2008

• Objectives of the foundation, as of 2008: To preserve printed documents and research papers related to Sri Lankan Tamils by archiving them; to create a Tamil digital library accessible to all; to engage in research; and to collaborate with agencies that undertake similar efforts.
• In October 2008, PollachiNasan of www.thamizham.net started digitizing his vast collection and giving priority to the digitization of Sri Lankan Tamil documents.
• Mr. Mugunth from Thamizha organization donated another server to Project Noolaham, since the existing server was insufficient to meet the increasing demands.
• Projects implemented in 2008:
  • Muhappu Seyattiddam (Front Page Project):aiming to digitize one book per day, and to present it on the home page with a brief introduction. However, the project could not meet its objective due to lack of resources, thus transformed into ‘a book per week’. Important aspect of this project is that, unlike earlier attempts, most of the digitization tasks were outsourced.
  • Ithazhagam Project: aiming to digitally archive all the issues of 30 Sri Lankan Tamil, and Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora magazines, of which some of them are in English and others, in Tamil.The initial digitization involved digitizing all the past issues; was not completed in 2008, hence continued in 2009.
  • Colombo Scanning Project, 2008: A notable collection of Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora magazines collected by PathmanabaIyer was digitized under this project, along with documents sent by authors, donors and well-wishers.
  • Trincomalee Scanning Project, 2008: Started in 2007, the project archiving documents on Trincomalee and a collection of Malligaimagazines, was completed in 2008.
  • Thamizham Pollachi Nasan Project: Technical support provided by Project Noolaham volunteers to another digitizing effort, Thamizham Digitizing Project carried out by PollachiNasan, which also included several Sri Lankan Tamil publications that were not digitized by Project Noolaham.

2009

• Noolaham Foundation reconfigured itself as an independent organization separated from Project Noolaham. Significant factorsthat contributed to this divergence: the difficulties associated with designating responsibilities to the numerous volunteers involved inProject Noolaham within certain time frames or deadlines was considered counter-productive to the assigning of organizational responsibilities; and as an organisation, the assumption of responsibility is not viable without direct communication with each individual contributor.
• The foundation decided to function separately from Project Noolaham, while continuing to provide financial assistance to Project Noolaham volunteers for the digitisation projects.
• The Foundation is no longer responsible for the technical infrastructure and server maintenance of Project Noolaham.
• The organizational objectives of the foundation were broadened to include: Promoting open access to information sources; Maintaining an online Tamil digital library; Supporting digital preservation initiatives and promote efficient strategies for enhanced digital content creation and diffusion; Engaging in awareness-raising campaigns on various issues such as digital preservation, information literacy and knowledge management; Facilitating knowledge transfer and foster research and development activities.
• The foundation assumed the responsibility of developing Tamil Digital Library which provides indexing services to Project Noolaham, cataloguing their collection.
• For the first time since the organization was founded, money has been utilized to carry out necessary administrative and website development activities.
• In 2009, two papers were presented by G. Shaseevan on issues related to Noolaham. The first was submitted at the '37th Literary Meeting' held in Oslo, Norway, the second, titled “Local Language Content Preservation through digitisation and Archiving” at the 'Symposium on Localised Systems and Applications 2009' conference hosted by the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka.
• Until the end of 2009, there was no systemized fund raising activity that continuously brings in revenues. The projects were dependent on unpredictable random monetary contributions, thus getting delayed and taking longer periods to be completed, and the administrative tasks of the foundation were also interrupted.
• The detrimental effects of unpredictable monetary flow were identified by the end of 2009, and a systematic financial planning was implemented. As a result, total monthly expense of the foundation was defined as 100,000 Sri Lankan rupees, and 12 sponsors for each month were also identified.

2010

• The Noolaham Foundation was legally registered (GA 2390) in May 2010.
• The foundation’s Board of Trustees, Members, Associate members were assigned and, Project Task Force, Regional Task Force, and Global Task Force were created.
• As a result of systemized fund raising efforts, the foundation achieved 83% of its targeted monetary inflow in 2010.
• The total financial contribution received in 2010 exceeded the 2009 amount by 55%, and the number of donors had also doubled.
• The first digitizing project of the foundation -Vaasikasaalai 2010, digitizing more than 1000 newspapers, was implemented
• Eight awareness raising sessions, two volunteer meetings,a digitization training workshop, and a number of other meetings were organized. Aleaflet was printed and distributed at various meetings.
• A pilot project was carried out by late 2010 to publish a monthly newsletter. The newsletter will cover news about the Foundation's activities and related articles. The first issue was published in January 2011.
• The foundation extended financial assistance to Keetru website and Aayvakam (IIRAA).
• As of 2010, publishers such as Tamiliyal, Kalachuvadu, Gnanam, Kaalam, Thai Veedu, London

ThamilarThakaval, Vaikarai, ChinthanaiVaddam, Anpuneri, and Oodaru archive digital versions of their publications at Noolaham.

• As of 2010, the following organizations collaborate with Noolaham Foundation: Project Noolaham, Thamizham, Suvadi Digital Library, Tamil National Archive, Keetru, Foundation for Library Awareness, International Institute for Research and Analytical Activities (IIRAA), Womens' Education and Research Centre, Viluthu, Colombo Tamil Sangam, International Tamil Small Magazines Association, Cintanaikoodam.