Thursday 2 July 2009

Web muster

Judith H. Dobrzynski talks to Arnold Lehman (Brooklyn Museum) about permanent collections

Art Baloney, a blog for examples of torturous art writing (oh, the temptation to start a NZ spin-off ...)

Jerry Saltz talks with Ann Temkin, Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture, about gender disparity in the display of MoMa's permanent collection

Tim Barton, president of Oxford University Press, on the Google Books settlement:

We cannot now predict all of the places where the settlement will take us, which should make us understandably cautious. But even as we debate the important issues surrounding it, we must not shirk our responsibility to take forward-thinking, tangible steps now — today — by conjuring perilous futures and retreating to the safety of inaction and paralysis.

The settlement raises other interesting challenges: The scholarly world is drowning in information already, so we will need better paths through all this newly rediscovered older material. But what an enviable problem to face.

So we at Oxford University Press support the settlement, even as we recognize its imperfections and want it made better. As Voltaire said, "Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien," the perfect is the enemy of the good. Let us not waste an opportunity to create so much good. Let us work together to solve the imperfections of the settlement. Let us work together to give students, scholars, and readers access to the written wisdom of previous generations. Let us keep those minds alive.

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