“Librarians have important role to play in eSri Lanka initiative”: ICTA Chairman

The days when libraries dealt only with books are gone and libraries now house digital content and ICT facilities. Librarians are in a better position to offer their cooperation in building Sri Lanka as a knowledge hub of the region. Library Associations and the Sri Lanka Library Association in particular, are in an ideal position to steer Sri Lanka on the path to becoming a ‘Wonder of Asia’.
 

Librarian is technology savvy
Things are very different now. We have the internet, a flagship tool of modern Library Science. ‘Since I wanted to know something about your valuable profession, I used the Internet to find out a little. The literature available was enormous. However, I will limit myself to just four quotations related to librarians although I know that I will not be doing sufficient justice by your profession. The first, two of them are from the American Library Association or ALA. I quote: ‘When you, absolutely positively, have to know, ask librarians’. If I paraphrase it in my own language it will be ‘If you have to know absolutely positively, ask a Librarian’. My second citation, also from the American Library Association is about the librarian, trained in the use of modern technology in library procedure. I quote: ‘Today’s librarian is a well-trained, technology-savvy, information expert who can enrich the learning process of any library user – from early reader to graduate student to young Web surfer to retiring senior citizen’. The third citation I would like to place before you is from Herbert S. White, distinguished Professor Emeritus, School of Library and Information Science, Indiana University, Bloomington and made in 1999.  You will agree that it is relevant today. I quote: ‘We cannot have good libraries until we first have good librarians – properly educated, professionally recognised, and fairly rewarded’. My fourth or last quotation but not the least in importance is from Bill Gates, the founder of the world’s largest software company. I quote: ‘I’d be happy if I could think that the role of the library was sustained and even enhanced in the age of the computer’. You professional Librarians are making good use of information and communication technology in your profession although your field of specialty is referred to as library and information science. Although I am not an expert in ICT, I have a small number of ICT professionals and others of extremely high calibre in the organisation. Leaving you to ponder over these quotes in your free time and be proud of yourself and your profession, I would like to tell you how ICTA is making use of information and communication technology in executing its mandate.
ICTA in perspective
The mandate of ICTA as the Government’s apex ICT institution is to take all necessary measures to implement the Government policy in relation ICT.
Currently ICTA functions under the Ministry of Telecommunication and Information Technology.  Before this Ministry was setup at the last Cabinet reshuffle in 2010, ICTA functioned under the Presidential Secretariat. However, the e-Sri Lanka Development Project which is implemented by ICTA continues to be administered by the Presidential Secretariat.
ICTA implements its mandate under a six-pronged program of activities, the prongs being interdependent. But each prong is designed to address a key area in the larger eSri Lanka Development project.
As you know ‘e’ here stands for ‘electronic’. Further elaborated it means digital or ICT-enabled. eSri Lanka therefore means the overall Government Initiative for developing the whole country by making use of information and communication technology.
Libraries for digital content envisaged in ‘Mahinda Chinthana’
The country’s development program is centred on the policy document of the Government, namely the Mahinda Chinthana and the Mahinda Chinthana Vision for the Future. The eSri Lanka initiative, therefore receives its guidance from this policy document. One of the aims of the Mahinda Chinthana Vision for the Future is to make Sri Lanka 75 per cent ICT literate by 2016. It also has put before the nation the challenge of becoming a dynamic regional hub by 2016. ICTA’s activities are directed to achieve the target of Sri Lanka becoming a dynamic hub, especially the knowledge hub of Asia and the wonder of Asia.
About five years ago, only privileged city-dwellers had easy access to the internet. President Mahinda Rajapaksa in his far-sighted vision called upon ICTA and asked us to work out a system for taking the computer to the village, to the ordinary man. This group came up with what one might call libraries for digital content. These are the 667 centres spread island-wide under the 1000 Nenasala project, a brainchild of the President.  ICTA designed this project and implements it. These centres or wisdom outlets provide an island-wide service in bringing the benefits of ICT to the rural population. They also provide public access to information and communication services through different means. They extend the benefits of ICT to communities which have not had access to such services. These have been set up in easily accessible and convenient locations. Each Nenasala is equipped with three to four personal computers with Internet access, a laser printer, scanner, web camera and other accessories. The concept of shared computing (sometimes called Virtual Desktops) is now implemented in Nenasalas: the excess power of a PC is leveraged for powering multiple computing sessions at once. A “virtual desktop” experience is provided through the access devices to each end user using their own monitor, keyboard and mouse.
Relevant content for library users through ICTA programs
The means of accessing content and services was thus implemented but it was also necessary to create relevant content for users. Even though access to ICT devices was available in Sri Lanka, these would be useful only if there is relevant content to keep users interested.  ICTA therefore implemented the e-Society program, which entailed creating an empowered knowledge based society. One of the strategies of ICTA’s e-Society program is to facilitate the development of innovative locally relevant local language content.
To facilitate the development of innovative locally relevant local language content ICTA took steps to enable the use of Sinhala and Tamil in computers and to ensure that what could be done in English using computers could be done in Sinhala and Tamil as well.  Thus, local language Unicode fonts were made available. Sinhala and Tamil sorting is standardised and implemented, keyboard layouts are defined and keyboard drivers are available for keyboard input.
Key library function of sorting in local languages
I would like to delve a little more in to this subject of sorting in local languages to show what an important turning point this could be in bringing the benefits of ICT to the village. As you know much more than I do, libraries have to deal with sorting. They have to deal with large volumes of information material. They could be printed materials, such as serial publications, magazines, monographs or books. With the commencement of the digital age, information material could also be videos, CDs etc. Now when one has an ocean of such materials, he is lost. It is here that we need the service of the librarian who solves the problem. His basic methodology is sorting.  For example, he may arrange the information material in alphabetical order. We are familiar with arranging according to the Roman alphabet, ABCDEF. But the majority in rural Sri Lanka is not familiar with ABCDEF. The majority is familiar only with ayanna, aayanna in Sinhala or aanaa, aavanaain Tamil. All major functions of library science, cataloguing, classifying and information retrieval have to do with sorting. What a wonderful facility it would be for rural Sri Lanka if sorting could be done in the local language? Well ICTA-initiated projects under the local language program have achieved this.
A local language content portal, www.danuma.lk was developed.  A wide selection of content in the local language was sourced through Lake House Newspapers, digitised and uploaded to www.danuma.lk.Workshops were held for Nenasala operators, school children, teachers and community-based organisations on local content, Unicode Sinhala etc.  They were trained on e-commerce, accessing agricultural information and e-services etc. Content was sourced from various organisations and saved on DVDs which were distributed among them. Subsequently, as the range expanded and included many areas such as education, agriculture, health, commerce etc., specially designed software (content library) with a facility for easy navigation was developed and distributed island-wide. One such specific project was the Sinhala Wikipedia.
ICTA’s thrust to make Wikipedia-type library benefits available to local population
The Wikipedia is a free, collaboratively edited and multilingual Internet encyclopaedia supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 22 million articles (over 3.9 million in English alone) have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone and it has about 100,000 regularly active contributors. However, ICTA was interested to give the benefits of the Wikipedia to the local population who know only Sinhala or Tamil.
The Companies Felidae and Practical Action worked as a consortium to seed the Wikipedia with translated articles from the English Wikipedia and build awareness so that people would contribute content to it.  Sinhala Wikipedia is now available. People have been contributing additional work to the base. 
Key library function of service assistance through GIC (1919)
The Government Information Centre (GIC 1919), is quite well known now. When a citizen needed information from a Government Department some time ago, the task used to be very cumbersome. He had to find a contact person in the relevant department, meet him or telephone him and ask him. Very often, he was referred to others. If he had no access to a contact person, he is often shunted from pillar to post. Now GIC has become not only an information centre but also an information service centre. Now not only can you ask for the telephone number of the Railway Department by dialling 1919, you can also ask and receive information about what time the train convenient to you is. Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunga often relates his own personal experience in this connection when a villager had come to his office one day just to ask him how to get a passport.
GIC is a centralised location for providing Government information.  ICTA’s venture on setting up GIC fulfilled a long felt gap needed to serve the citizens of Sri Lanka in all three languages. The call centre which is operational for 12 hours every day is highly utilised. On average it receives over 2,500 calls daily.
However, it became obvious that if the same information can be provided over the web, such information can be accessed by a citizen 24 hours every day without any limitations. This idea gave birth to the GIC website www.gic.Gov.lk which has already won two international awards. Information is now provided through the website and by telephone. 
Networking of Government institutions
ICTA has connected 475 Government organisations through the Lanka Government Network to provide the necessary facilities to enable a more efficient and effective Government and to avoid duplication of utilisation of resources. Each Government organisation is provided with personal computers, printers, scanners, a WAN router, a LAN switch and IP phones, etc. Internet facilities, VOIP facilities and email facilities are provided to the Government organisations. E-services are now being made available. It is now possible to collect your revenue license through the Lanka gate site. Birth, marriage and death certificates are easily accessible at any Divisional Secretariat in the country and ICTA has already digitised more than 20 million birth certificates.
Birth, marriage and death certificates and special identification code number
The e-Population register was launched only three weeks ago. In future, information related to all births, marriages and deaths occurring in Sri Lanka will be incorporated into a computerised information system at the time the incidents are registered.  With the implementation of this new information system, every citizen born in this country will be assigned a special identification code number. It will be possible to use this number in all future Government services in respect of the person concerned not only in one Department but in all relevant Government Departments and Institutions.
In future, when a person needs a passport, his application will need to give only this single code number and the required number of photographs to the cashier at the passport office. The Registrar General’s Department will be contacted on-line to obtain all the necessary information about the birth certificate and the Department of Registration of Persons will also be contacted on line regarding his registration under the Act.
ICTA initiative of improving ICT literacy
To meet the objective of broad ICT literacy and education in the country, ICTA implemented its ICT human resource capacity building program. Programs were also conducted for imparting basic and technical ICT skills to Government officers. E-literacy programs were also implemented to increase the ICT or e-literacy level in the country, especially among the rural citizens. ICT literacy has increased from 9.7% in 2004 to over 20% in2009, and is estimated to be about 35% at present.
Capacity building, a major contribution from libraries given a shot in the arm by ICTA
ICTA is also extensively engaged in building capacity within the ICT industry through its ICT Capacity Building Program (ICBP). Through the ICBP, the industry’s human resources are developed by assisting in training professionals on industry priority areas. This program is also providing postgraduate education and overseas exposure to senior managers, by introducing them to the latest technologies and best practices available overseas to the country. ICBP is also actively involved in training trainers to build training capacity, by providing initial training required for ITES Industry employment for new recruits and in trainings for individuals who wish to enter the industry.
ICTA, through ICBP pushes the industry to acquire international process and quality standards by funding assistance for acquiring the latest of such certifications. The ICT/BPO industry has become the fifth largest foreign exchange earner in the country. The target is to make it a one billion dollar industry by 2016.
Many things which ICTA struggled with at the start are now the norm. Government organisations are connected. Using Unicode Sinhala and Tamil is the norm. Local language content is available. Over 300 tri-lingual Government websites are now available. Sinhala and Tamil blogs are available. E-Services are available. Government officers are mostly capable of using ICT nowadays. There is more to be done, but what has already been done augurs well for the future.