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April 2013
Welcome to the first issue of Noolaham News, the English newsle of this initiative is to keep all our stakeholders updated about the will be published quarterly and will carry news and information Foundation. Please send your feedback and suggestions to noolaham
Tamil Documentation Conference 2013
Noolaham Foundation has been successfully carrying out the task of knowledge sharing for the benefit of the present and future generations for the past 8 years. Our tasks include documenting and preserving the knowledge bases of the heritages of the Tamil speaking communities in Sri Lanka. Marking the completion of its 8th year, Noolaham Foundation has decided to hold a special event along with a research Conference on the theme “Documentation and Preservation in Sri Lankan Tamil Milieu” on the 27th and 28th of April 2013. knowledge
bases of th in Sri Lan Noolaham event alon
knowledge communit 8th year, special ev
with a research Conference on the theme “Documentation and Preservation in Sri Lankan Tamil Milieu” on the 27th and 28th of April 2013. This conference aims at identifying and discussing the goals that have been achieved so far and the goals that
need to b documenta knowledge Lanka and papers on t
1. History, archaeological documents related to the
heritages 2. Audio, visual and photographic documents 3. Individual personalities and institutions 4. Documenting society 5. Linguistic and literary documentation
6. Know 7. The ro 8. Digita 9. Catalo 10. Art, c
Researchers are invited to submit their abstracts not exceeding 400 word for the accepted abstracts should be submitted on or before 1st March conference will be published in the conference proceedings.
New Chief Operating Officer Vimalathithan Vimalanathan is taking over from Seran Sivananthamoort January 2013. Vimalathithan is currently working as an Assistant Man Lanka Institute of Architects. Photography, Poetry and Graphic Design much interested in Ancient Tamil Society’s Culture, Economy, Techn poetry book Poiyum Pazhangathaiyum Verungkanavum was published India. His research interests are South Asian Archeology, Heritage Manag
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ews, the English newsletter from Noolaham Foundation. The aim olders updated about the Foundation's activities. Noolaham News y news and information about the projects and initiatives of the
suggestions to noolahamfoundation@gmail.com
onference 2013
rying out it of the ears. Our nowledge munities 8th year, a special he theme an Tamil nowledge
bases of the heritages of the Tamil speaking communities in Sri Lanka. Marking the completion of its 8th year, Noolaham Foundation has decided to hold a special event along with a research Co
knowledge bases of the heritages of the Tamil speaking communities in Sri Lanka. Marking the completion of its 8th year, Noolaham Foundation has decided to hold a special event along
mentation n the 27th
ussing the goals that
need to be achieved in the future in the areas of documentation, preservation and dissemination of knowledge. Educationists and researchers across Sri Lanka and from other countries will submit their research papers on the following themes at this conference.
to the 6. Knowledge sharing and education
7. The role and uses of technology in documentation 8. Digital libraries, websites and databases 9. Cataloging and library science 10. Art, cultural memory and documentation
not exceeding 400 words on or before 15th January 2013. Full papers on or before 1st March 2013. All accepted papers submitted for this roceedings.
r
Seran Sivananthamoorthy as the COO of Noolaham Foundation from ing as an Assistant Manager, for Board of Architectural Education, Sri etry and Graphic Designing are his favorite creative fields. He is very ulture, Economy, Technology, Arts and Settlement patterns. His first kanavum was published in 2010 by Thagitha Publication, Coimbature,
heology, Heritage Management and Tamil Devotional Literature.
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Noolaham Journal to be launched in April 201
and Noolaham Journal which is on its
the maiden step of the encouragement
examinat and acceleration of the researches
the ‘Noo concerning the past and present of
emptiness our society has its prime objective
the releva of acquisition of research papers
This journal has been decided to be published twice a year on April and October of each year. The Noolaham Foundation will pay special attention on the maintenance of high standards on the continuous publication, content and the external appearance of the
journal wh managemen resources. T on 28th of Noolaham F
Donations Update Noolaham Foundation relies heavily on the generous support from our users and well wishers. Please consider making a donation today. During 2012, twenty six donor donated 2.3 million rupees for the Foundation. The details are as follows:
Federal Assistance Award 568,147.50 Relief And Rehabilitation Network (UK) 420,945.00 Pathmanaba Iyer, Rathina Iyer 239,770.00 Neelan Thiruchelvam Trust 213,713.50 Bavaharan, Vanniyasingham 208,373.00 Natkeeran, L. Kanthan 109,095.00 Kopinath Thillainathan 72,100.00 Manamohan, V. (Dr) 65,000.00 Tamil Literary Garden 56,875.00 Kopi, Disan and Friends 55,900.00 Noolaham United Kingdom 46,912.50
Jeyachandra Sakar, Muth Kumaran, A Sutharshan Premkumar, Yoga Natha Sivakumara Franklin Ma Akilan Poob Anojan Gun Arulpiragas Sivakumara Ganesan, Na Balasuthan Sampath Ba
TOTAL
Neelan Tiruchelvam Trust grant update
Neelan Tiruchelvam Trust has provided us with a grant to carry out a digitization project for six months. The main goal of this project is to document and digitize a minimum of 30,000 pages of books and other publications and make them available without access restrictions. To make publications available without access restrictions, permissions from copyright holders have to be obtained and thus obtaining permissions from 50 copyright holders was also planned to be conducted as part of this project.
Even thoug September activities be Activities co first two mo
1. scan 2. Obt pag 3. Obt
hold 4. Rev
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unched in April 2013
and the publication of them after a careful examination of their quality. It is worthy to note that the ‘Noolaham’ journal is published to wipe out the emptiness of the availability high quality journals in the relevant field.
ed twice a Noolaham on the continuous ance of the
journal which has been initiated with an excellent management structure and with diverse varieties of resources. The first release of this journal will be held on 28th of April 2013 at the 8th anniversary of the Noolaham Foundation.
generous se consider six donor The details
,147.50 ,945.00 ,770.00 ,713.50 ,373.00 ,095.00 ,100.00 ,000.00 ,875.00 ,900.00 ,912.50
Jeyachandran Vaithilingam 32,500.00 Sakar, Muthukumaru 2,500.00 Kumaran, A. 32,500.00 Sutharshan Srinivasan 30,010.00 Premkumar, A. 26,000.00 Yoga Nathan Trust 25,000.00 Sivakumaran, K. 14,500.00 Franklin Marshal, K. 13,000.00 Akilan Poobalasingam 13,000.00 Anojan Gunaratnam 13,000.00 Arulpiragasam, S. 13,000.00 Sivakumaran, Aravind 11,750.00 Ganesan, Nanda 11,315.00 Balasuthan Gopalasingam 6,500.00 Sampath Bank – Wellawatte 5,000.00
TOTAL 2,336,406.50
grant update
ith a grant onths. The d digitize a and other out access
ut access ers have to s from 50 nducted as
Even though this project was scheduled to start on 1 September 2012, we were not able to commence activities because the grants were received in October. Activities commenced in October 2012 and during the first two months of the project, we have
1. scanned 29 publications with 5,927 pages 2. Obtained another 45 publications with 3,758
pages to be scanned 3. Obtained new permissions from 15 copyright
holders 4. Revamped the copyrights permissions database
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Pallikoodam initiated
Pallikoodam (Tamil word for School) yet another ambitious initiative during 2012. The vision of this initiative is to is create open, freely enironments for the Sri Lankan Tamil speaking students and educators
Two pilot projects (Digital Libray for Advanced Level Students and D were started in October 2012 and it will be finished in September. Two and all other activities are being carried out by volunteers, mainly aproached schools, private institutions, individuals and education d educational resources. About 500 exam papers are already digit Trincomalee and Colombo have provided or agreed to provide their stu
Education department of Northern Province has given permission to their domain. Some Zonal Education Departments have agreed to pro activities are currently being extended to other districts as well.
Noolaham Digital Library Update
2,050 documents were added during 2010 to the Project Noolaham database, taking the tally from 10,058 to 12108. They include
Books 3,806 Magazines 4,930 Newspapers 1,986 Others 1,386 Total 12,108
These publications were published in 108 years. The books includes publications of 1,586 publishers and 2,147 authors. There were four Special Archives and nine portals enhancing the accessibility of the website.
Noolaham
Month
Un vis Jan-12 11 Feb-12 10 Mar-12 10 Apr-12 10 May-12 12 Jun-12 12 Jul-12 13 Aug-12 14 Sept-12 12 Oct-12 14 Nov-12 13 Dec-12 14 Total 150
Veththiyar Thamizhavanam 2013
Students of Royal College Tamil Debate Council have electron documented the school books published for the past 48 years. This p event has been named ‘Veththiyar Thamizhavanam 2013’ by them occasion of releasing the CD was held with the collaboration of Noo Foundation at Royal College Union Skill Centre on 31st March 2013.
The chief guest of the event of releasing the CD was Hon D Swaminathan and special guest was M. Raja Rajeswaran Thangarajah
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other ambitious initiative of Noolaham Foundation has been initiated to is create open, freely accessible, self-organizing virtual learning g students and educators.
ced Level Students and Digital Library for Ordinary Level Students) nished in September. Two project officers were assigned for scanning t by volunteers, mainly university students. These volunteers have ividuals and education departments to identify, locate and collect apers are already digitized. So far many schools from Jaffna, agreed to provide their study materials for this project.
has given permission to collect resources from all the schools under ments have agreed to provide resources as well. Resource collecting
r districts as well.
ate
to the from
years. 1,586 four g the
Noolaham Digital Library Usage 2012
Month
Unique visitors
Number of visits
Pages Hits
Jan-12 11,116 19,948 214,710 648,841 Feb-12 10,287 19,258 195,269 595,388 Mar-12 10,619 19,559 223,437 660,509 Apr-12 10,618 18,782 240,913 615,190 May-12 12,143 20,686 229,385 708,767 Jun-12 12,913 20,870 205,025 612,906 Jul-12 13,594 21,743 278,039 703,907 Aug-12 14,319 23,560 399,523 807,132 Sept-12 12,918 20,417 399,095 743,393 Oct-12 14,168 23,258 536,773 930,126 Nov-12 13,288 21,996 436,909 856,856 Dec-12 14,194 23,378 394,657 758,184 Total 150,177 253,455 3,753,735 8,641,199
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Council have electronically the past 48 years. This pioneer havanam 2013’ by them. The the collaboration of Noolaham tre on 31st March 2013.
g the CD was Hon D. M.
Rajeswaran Thangarajah, Attorney-at-Law. The other distinguished
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participants were School Principle, Mr. H.A.Upali Gunasekara, th M.Ganapathipillay, The Teacher-in-Charge of the current debate team Noolaham Foundation Director Mr.S.Seran, Past presidents of Roya several old boys of the college.
Discussion on "Pallikoodam" Program in Colomb
A small discussion on seeking advice on the Pallikoodam Project currently undertaken by Noolaham Foundation was held at the Cinnamon Lakeside Hotel on March 6th 2013. The discussion was attended by some foreign resource persons namely Agneta W Flinck, Lecturer Department of Sociology, Division of Education and Andreas Bryngelson, project Co- ordinator, Lund University. Prof.S.Santhirasegaran, Mr. Sureshkumar Kanthasamy, Mr. Seran Sivananthamoorthy, Ms. Chinthoorie Yogalingam and Ms. Varakini Shanmugadas also participated in the event. The meeting enabled the participants to get a broad understanding of the project. It also strengthened the relationship of the foundation with th in the projects initiated by the Foundation
Introducing Noolaham in Batticola
An introductory event about Noolahm Foundation and its projects and programmes was held at the Co-op center hall in Batticaloa on the 30th of March 2013. The primary intention of the event was to broaden the people's awareness about the Noolaham Foundation and the projects currently undertaken by the Foundation. The event had two segments. The first one was for the general public from 9 A.M. to 12 Noon and the second one was catered to the educational sector, especially students and teachers, from 2 P.M. to 5 P.M. The content of both events were the same. The participants at the event from the Foundation were Mr.Seran Sivananthamoorthy, Mr.Sureshkumar Kanthasamy, Mr.Anuheman Annalingam, Mr.Umadaran Sivathas, Mr.Mayuran Sivanathan, Mr.Harishanth Thiraviyanathan and Mr.Sivarajan Balakumaran. The major topic of the event was on the feasibility for the Noolaham Foundation to operate in Batticaloa and to pursue its projects by obtaining available resources from the region. Emphasis was also given to the Virtual
Classroom Foundation
The even participant Sivaguru. gave a bri past and Foundation Mr.Umada address by Document Journal. T introductio Mr.Suresh noolaham. Thiraviyan received a served as Noolaham event wa Ragunatha
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.A.Upali Gunasekara, the Deputy Principal of Royal College, Mr f the current debate team of Royal College, Mr G.Sri Ragawarajan, Past presidents of Royal college debate teams of yester years and
Program in Colombo
Pallikoodam Project tion was held at the 3. The discussion was s namely Agneta W ivision of Education tor, Lund University. anthasamy, Mr. Seran galingam and Ms. e event. The meeting understanding of the of the foundation with those who could be of great help in the future
ticola
ation and he Co-op rch 2013. oaden the oundation by the The first M. to 12 d to the teachers, ents were from the amoorthy, nuheman .Mayuran han and ic of the oolaham pursue its from the e Virtual
Classroom project presently being undertaken by the Foundation.
The event began with the introduction of the participants from the Foundation by Mr.Seelan Sivaguru. Thereafter, Mr.Seran Sivananthamoorthy gave a brief introduction to the background and the past and present activities of the Noolaham Foundation. This was followed by an address by Mr.Umadaran Sivathas on Institutional Archive and an address by Mr.Mayuran Sivanathan about the Tamil Documentation Conferance and the Noolaham Journal. The next part of the event was the introduction of the Virtual Classroom project by Mr.Sureshkumar Kanthasamy and an overview of the noolaham.org website by Mr.Harishanth Thiraviyanathan. We are happy to note that the event received a warm response from the audience and it served as a signal for the future dissemination of the Noolaham Foundation’s activities in Batticaloa. This event was organized with the help of Sarmila Ragunathan and Seelan Sivaguru.
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Volunteers discuss Pallikoodam initiative
A meeting about the ‘Pallikoodam Project’ was organized at the Cosy Restaurant, Jaffna on 09.03.2013 at about 7.30 P.M. The primary intention of the meeting was to explore and discuss the ways and means of pushing the project towards its next phase. The participants of the meeting were Mr.S.Seran, Mr.K.Sureshkumar, Mr.Sarveswaran Kengatharaiyer (Lecturer, Department of Computer Science, University of Jaffna) , Mr.Sayanthan (Solution
architect, hse Mr.B.Raveendran (Advance L Combined Maths teac Mr.K.Sivalingam (Advance L Physics teacher), Miss.N. (Advance Level Chem teacher) and N.Piranavaru E.Kawsihen, T.Harisha S.Tharshikan, A.Vimosa V.Magilan, S.Athirayan from Resource Team. The main top the discussion was the prepara of the Moodle for the adva level especially for the M
Nudpam Conference – 2013
The ‘Nudpam’ Technological conference was held at the Jaffna Public Library Auditorium on 9th of March 2013. It was organized by a Tamil Information Technology Organization named ‘Nudpam’. More than 14 research papers on diverse topics in the area of Information Technology were submitted at the conference. The Chief Operating Officer of the Noolaham Foundation, Mr.Seran Sivananthamoorthy provided his address submitting a research paper on the topic ‘Tamil digitization efforts in Sri Lanka’. Mr.Sarveswaran Kengatharaiyer, Lecturer, Department of Computer Science, University of Jaffna too submitted a research pape greatly welcomed and the audience seemed to have found them useful
.
'Panaiyolai' Documentation Conference held in C
A documentation seminar titled ‘Panayolai’ was held in ‘Vinothan Hall’ at the ‘Colombo Tamil Sangam‘, Wellawatte on 03.03.2013. The event commenced at 10.00 a.m. with the welcome address by Mr.Vimalathiththan Vimalanathan and was followed by an address by Mr.T.Mathusoothanan. Thereafter, a short lecture on the topic of ‘Documentation and the sharing of Knowledge’ was delivered by Prof.Saba.Jeyarajah. The next event was an address by
Mr.K.Ragu related to adjacent ph then on c People fro architects, linguists to views and Seran Siva
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m initiative
tect, hsenid), .Raveendran (Advance Level bined Maths teacher), .Sivalingam (Advance Level ics teacher), Miss.N.Kala ance Level Chemistry er) and N.Piranavaruban, wsihen, T.Harishanth, rshikan, A.Vimosanan, gilan, S.Athirayan from the urce Team. The main topic of iscussion was the preparation e Moodle for the advanced especially for the Maths
stream immediately. The teachers who took part at the discussion promised to provide course structures of their respective subjects. Each of them will be helped in their tasks by a team. It has been planned to accomplish this work at least by the 10th of March. The meeting which continued with some other miscellaneous matters regarding the contribution of the teachers was finally over by about 9 P.M.
as held at the Jaffna 013. It was organized Organization named diverse topics in the ted at the conference. olaham Foundation, address submitting a zation efforts in Sri cturer, Department of ubmitted a research paper on the topic of. Both research papers were o have found them useful.
.
onference held in Colombo
was held Sangam‘, enced at ress by followed ereafter, a n and the red by ddress by
Mr.K.Raguparan on the topic ‘The Documentation related to the Tamil societies of Sri Lanka and the adjacent phases to be adopted’. There was a discussion then on common topics related to documentation. People from various spheres of society such as architects, people attached to the news media and linguists took part in the discussion and presented their views and thoughts. The seminar ended with Mr. Seran Sivananthamoorthy's vote of thanks.
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Tamil Documentation Conference Organizing Com
The Organizing Committee of the TDC – Tamil Documentation Confe
‘Vinothan Hall’ of Colombo ‘Tamil Sangam’. Vimalathithan Vimalana
committee, Seran Sivananthamoorthy, Director of Noolaham Foundati
organizing committee were the chief participants at the meeting. The p
the projects and activities related to the conference and the future plan
Tamil Documentation Conference - 2013 ORGANIZING COMMITT
Chairperson - Vimalanathan Vimalathithan
Secretary - Chinthoorie Yogalingam
Treasurers – Anuheman Annalingam
Gajani Satchithanandan
Program Organizing Team
Puviraj Iroshan
Jeganathan Thivatharan
Balasubramaniam Neethujan
Thayaparan Mokanarangan
Selvanayagam Jegathepan
Rajendram Tharshanth
Krishnamoorthy Mayuresan
Sivakumar Luckshan
Arulthasan Kandepan
Publication Team
Sivanathan Mayuran
Thavendran Kapilan
Arunasalam Sambhanthan
Arulseelan Harishan
Registr
Chintho
Sivadas
Nantha
Varakin
Balakum
Ratnase
Thadsh
Guest R
Jeyasee
Muruge
Jagasee
Nagaraj
To
.................. .................. .................. ..................
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rence Organizing Committee met in Colombo
il Documentation Conference 2013 met on the 3rd of March at the
. Vimalathithan Vimalanathan, Chairman of the TDC organizing
or of Noolaham Foundation and Y.Chinthoorie, Secretary of the TDC
ants at the meeting. The participants discussed the current status of
rence and the future plans to improve and implement them.
ANIZING COMMITTEE
Registration Team
Chinthoorie Yogalingam
Sivadas Umadaran
Nanthakumar Subesan
Varakini Shanmugadas
Balakumar Sivarajan
Ratnasegar Natheesan
Thadshayini Ragunathan
Guest Relations Team
Jeyaseelan Ladeslous
Murugesu Suthakar
Jagaseelan Varalakson
Nagarajah Kapilan
To
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