Noolaham Foundation

Noolaham Foundation is a legally registered (GA 2390), non-profit, non-partisan, secular entity, founded to provide enhanced access to information sources and foster knowledge-based development in Sri Lanka. It maintains an online digital library and archive, facilitates information preservation programs, provides financial assistance and technical guidance for digitization initiatives and actively participates in awareness-raising campaigns. It also co-ordinates a range of fund-raising activities and collaborates with other organizations and individuals.

Noolaham Digital Library (noolaham.org) and Noolaham Multimedia Archive (aavanaham.org) maintained by the Noolaham Foundation serves as Learning Centres incorporating local knowledge. They enable social interaction with a view to achieve constructive social outcomes. The digital library and archive function as a repository for various community institutions and fulfill the information needs of students, researchers, historians, activists and the public.

Noolaham Foundation was created with a view to documenting, preserving and disseminating texts and sources that speak about the social, economic, cultural and political discourses related to the Sri Lankan Tamil speaking communities. In the post-independence Sri Lanka, sites of knowledge production and knowledge preservation of the Tamil speaking communities such as the Jaffna Public Library has been lost. Therefore, it is important that we create alternative, virtual platforms where this knowledge could be preserved. Such platforms can also cater to the needs of local and international researchers who are interested in studying the various aspects of the Sri Lankan Tamil speaking communities. Noolaham Foundation is one such platform.

History

Sri Lankan Tamil speaking communities have transmitted their knowledge through written, oral, visual and artifact sources over millennia. The communities adopted evolving technologies and institutions to support their knowledge preservation and access needs. For example, Sri Lankan Tamil speaking scholars played an instrumental role in collecting, printing, publishing ancient palm-leaf manuscripts in the 19th and 20th centuries. In the late 20th century, they helped establish village libraries and contributed significantly to Tamil library science. As computers and the Internet became widespread in the 1990s, several initiatives were undertaken to adopt those technologies for community' knowledge needs.

In 1998, Project Madurai, following the Project Gutenberg example was initiated to bring Tamil resources online. Project Madurai was the first online Tamil digital library. It engaged volunteers all over the world virtually to coordinate, type, proofread and bring resources online. In 1999, R. PathmanabaIyer began contributing works by Sri Lankan Tamil authors to Project Madurai. He digitized 40 books of which 13 of them were added to Project Madurai after quality review. Parallelly, Era Kanagaratnam led International Tamil Archives undertook microfilming of its collections.

In the early 2000s, there were discussions in the Tamil blog/Internet and offline communities to bring Sri Lankan Tamil language works online. Few individuals initiated and experimented digitization initiatives such as Eelanool (2004) and E-Suvadi (2005) of Sri Lankan Tamil books. In 2005, based on the lessons learnt from Ealanool, E-Suvadi, Project Madurai and other initiatives, like-minded individuals initiated the digital library project named Project Noolaham, which emphasized volunteerism, community and openness.

Since 2006, Project Noolaham started accepting donations and in-kind support to accelerate digital preservation efforts. For content management, Project Noolaham initially used a basic HTML website, and then it migrated to Joomla, and is currently using Mediawiki and Islandora. The first collaborative digitization began in 2007 with Women's Education and Research Center (WERC) and Colombo Tamil Sangam. By the end of 2008, the user rate had increased significantly and the server was insufficient for the increased traffic.

In 2008, pioneers of Project Noolaham in consultation with all the stakeholders formed Noolaham Foundation to sustain the digital archiving initiatives in Sri Lanka. In 2010, Noolaham Foundation was formally incorporated as a guaranteed company. In 2011, Noolaham Foundation invited all stakeholders to participate in a strategic planning process and developed its Roadmap 2020 with the emphasis on institutionalization, global transformation, and observance of ethical and professional standards. Initiatives were taken to form global chapters of Noolaham Foundation and streamline its operations.

Mission, Objectives and Guiding Principles

Mission

Document and preserve knowledge, properties and values of all spheres related to Sri Lankan Tamil Speaking communities, make such knowledge accessible to all and capacitate communities to engage in knowledge building and learning.

Objectives

Document, preserve and digitally archive ethnography and knowledge bases of mainstream and marginalized communities including dialects, belief systems, myths, rituals, folklore, games, indigenous medicine, law and administrative systems, technologies and arts.
Engage in and support preservation and digital archiving of written, print, multi-media and electronic resources related to Sri Lankan Tamil speaking communities.
Provide knowledge and information services to ensure free and open access, thereby supporting educational, research and development endeavors related to Sri Lankan Tamil speaking communities.
Build communities of practice, processes, technologies and standards of archival, library and information sciences through communication, networking and collaboration.

Guiding Principles

Unity: Entities of Noolaham Foundation shall exist in different geographical, legal and political territories. Noolaham Foundation always ensures unity in its strategic framework, design, program, budget and communications.
Diversity: Diversity, exclusivity and pluralism are at the core of our mission. Noolaham Foundation recognizes and energetically affirms the dignity of those it serves, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, social background, religion/irreligion, place of origin, age, socio-economic status, physical or mental capabilities. Noolaham Foundation is committed to these values in its organizational governance, programs and collections.
Openness: As the driving force of Noolaham Foundation is centered on open data, open access and open knowledge, it does not charge end-users for accessing its archives. End-users should not use the contents for individual or corporate economic gain.
Transparency: Noolaham Foundation strives to be open and transparent in all of its operations. Our commitment includes detailed accounting, project and annual reports, timely dissemination of information and responsiveness to requests for information.
Unbiased: Noolaham Foundation is an unbiased entity. While it engages volunteers from different political thoughts and parties, it does not allow volunteers to use Noolaham Foundation for their political engagement and leverage. Noolaham Foundation shall take appropriate measures to prevent it from being politicized or labeled.
Volunteerism: Volunteerism is the basis for all Noolaham Foundation operations. The Annual Work Plan will be formulated emphasizing volunteer contribution in order to optimize the operational overheads and performance targets for each team.
Collaboration: Noolaham promotes synergy among similar organizations in digital documentation and preservation, thereby avoiding duplication and repetition of work. Noolaham Foundation shall collaborate with institutions when such collaboration optimizes Noolaham's productivity.
Participation: Broadening and strengthening the participation of the stakeholders of Noolaham Foundation is part and parcel of the Noolaham culture. It consults with stakeholders regarding policies and decisions that affect the business of Noolaham Foundation.

Chapters

Noolaham Foundation has registered Chapters in Canada, UK and Norway.

In addition, Noolaham Foundation receives key contributors from Australia, US and Switzerland.

Organizational Structure

Noolaham Foundation is a community digital library and a community digital archive. Community leadership, stewardship and ownership are key organizing principles for the organization. Noolaham Foundation encourages a collaborative-leadership framework whereby contributors lead one another to achieve organizational and community goals. We steward community resources consciously to support social justice and knowledge based community development of all the communities we serve.

All of Noolaham Foundation ongoing activities have been organized into sectors, and sectors into processes. In addition, Noolaham Foundation undertakes time bound projects. Each process and project with the exception of governance, governance board meeting, and resource mobilization processes are managed by staff. Volunteers in Sri Lankan and diaspora contribute to processes and projects as process/project mentors, subject matter experts and contributors. Staff and volunteers of a process or project together consist of the team for that process or project. A Processed/Project Based Management (PBM) has been adopted to effectively manage Noolaham endeavors to serve the community needs. Currently, there are seven sectors and forty five processes.

Sector 00: Governance, Policy and Strategy

Sector 01: Organizational Management and Operations

Sector 02: Program and Projects

Sector 03: Digital Processing and Preservation

Sector 04: Digital Library, Archive and Information Services

Sector 05: Technology Infrastructure and Development

Sector 06: Finance, Human Resources and Administration

Sector 07: Advocacy, Communications and Public Relations

The Governance Board is the primary decision making body for Noolaham Foundation. It consults with Gray Board, Advisory Pool, Management, Staff as well as other stakeholders as needed to direct Noolaham Foundation activities.

In addition to volunteers and staff, Noolaham Foundation relies on and answerable to the wider Noolaham Foundation Community. The wider Noolaham Community consists of Content Contributors, Source Contributors, Donors, Supporters, and Users.

Further details about Chapters, governing bodies etc are discussed in the following chapters.

Reporting Flow

Noolaham Foundation is organized as processes and projects to enable high level of collaboration while maintaining clear lines of communication and accountability. Noolaham Foundation reports to the wider community via monthly reports, project reports, audit reports and annual reports. These reports are the responsibility of the Chief Operating Officer, who shall engage appropriate staff resources in preparing these reports. These reports are to be reviewed and signed off by the Governance Board.

Sector managers report to the Chief Operating Officer weekly. Project coordinators provide Project Status Report to Chief Program Officer weekly. Sector (including program) and project updates must be compiled into the Monthly Report for review & sign off by the Governance Board as well as the wider Noolaham Foundation community.

The stats compilation for sector, monthly and project reports for ongoing activities such as digital preservation, multimedia documentation etc should be automated as much as possible via the Noolaham Dashboard.

All recurring activities must be tracked using the Sector and Project Tracking sheets. Backlog tasks, new tasks, issues must be tracked using the Operational and Governance Tracking sheets. These items are also known as tickets. Sector managers should flag overdue or long pending tasks and bring to the COO attention as needed via the weekly sector reports. COO shall aid the Sector Managers to engage relevant parties as needed to address the overdue tasks. Any long standing tasks/issues with challenges should be brought to the Governance Board by the COO.

Volunteers are encouraged to contribute and collaborate on tasks, activities at process and project levels. However, please respect the reporting lines and don't ask for individual reporting.

Internal Communications Flow

Noolaham Foundations seeks to build an open, positive, collaborative, respectful atmosphere for all staff and volunteers. Noolaham Foundation seeks to be a self-archiving, learning organization. Open communication and transparency are key to these goals.

All of Noolaham Foundation meetings must be pre-announced on respective process or project email threads, with reasonable notice period. Summary of all meetings should be shared via email or slack.

Sector Lead/Project Co-Ordinator and/or their Department Manager, and/or Chief Operating Officer must always be present at the meeting. The Chief Operating Officer must be present in all meetings where a job assignment/change or a priority establishment/change is needed. It is not mandatory for COO to attend technical advisory process/project meetings. However, the sector lead and/or department manager must be there and notify the summary of discussions in the slack thread or via email.

Use official channels for internal communications: Process/Project email threads, slack channels, wiki, document management system (Google Docs), website, and GitHub repository.

Do not use WhatsApp, use Slack instead. Avoid creating email threads outside of processes and project email threads. It is recommended that regular policy discussions happen face to face during the Governance Board meetings, rather than through drawn out email thread discussions. Staff can prepare background information.

For work related matters, volunteers should avoid communicating with staff outside of the following official meetings.

External links

References