Art History Library

[SJ Klein]

Hello Nathaniel,

It is good to hear from you.  Your simple vision is very much in line
with the project's aims, both in terms of locally relevant (and locally 
curated) works, and in fostering discussion around them.

The question of selecting Fine Arts materials does fall under the 
jurisdiction of curators.  To answer your question about other art
history contacts, while we have some individual collections (cf. 
http://www.mfa.org/tours/package.asp?key=558), we do not currently
have active input from art historians, so your ideas are welcome.

Different groups and audiences will find different selections useful; see 
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/content_stamping for an idea of how a variety of 
curation groups might work together to identify materials.

>       - How does/should local culture impact the content?
>        - Would specific content perspectives be based by
>        continental movements, regional movements, artistic
>        movements, all of the above, none?

Perspectives for a collection could be based on movements, as you 
suggest, or other frameworks.  Local culture will impact what is
familiar to or of interest to a particular audience, or how things
could best be explained...


>        - Would/Should I, as an American, only be able to
>        contribute content from my native local, or may I contribute from my
>        field/location of specialty, cultural perspective, etc..?
>        - Would/Should current political and social climates
>        direct the works chosen, or should this be strictly historical? (some
>        governments have policies/laws/regulations against specific
>        works/artists/movements...)

You are welcome to contribute as you see fit -- if you have an idea for a 
collection or related activities that would be useful or interesting to 
children, by all means contribute it.

We hope to foster an exchange between libraries, and identification and 
formatting of such collections and works in a way that is optimally usable 
on the laptops.  We are not gathering together a monolithic Library that 
everyone will have to have; teachers and schools and districts will be 
able to choose how to stock their library. Schools or countries that do 
not permit a particular collection or work may simply choose not to 
include it.

If you are aware that a particular set of works are controversial, please 
note that.  Then at least other curators will know the possible impact of 
including them in a collection.


>     - What guidelines are there to regulate size/quality of content
>     for OLPC projects?

You can use SVG and PNG (SVG through the browser). Collections that are to 
be downloaded all at once should generally limit themselves to ~10MB for 
the time being; individual images for study can be quite large.

>  - Support Related
>        - How does the OLPC Grassroots Learning Innovation offer
>        support?
>        - How can we reference OLPC when we apply for grants to
>        work on an OLPC project?

We are still considering how the former will work. In providing tools and 
networks to schools and children who formerly had no access to such 
materials, our work might normally be a main component of a standalone 
education outreach proposal. You are generally welcome to reference OLPC 
when we are a primary target of a proposal for curation and development 
grants; and we are glad to indicate support for projects in line with our 
mission.

Best,
SJ

> p.s. While it hopefully is not directly relevant for participation with
> OLPC, my position at Ohio University allows me to work with the entire
> College of Fine Arts (Art, Dance, Film, Interdisciplinary Arts, Music,
> Theater) along outside schools such as Computer Science, Electrical
> Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Astrophysics, Astronomy, Health & 
> Human Sciences, and so on. Interacting with these different disciplines 
> allows projects, such as the above, to bring together talents of all 
> types at a local level, and more often then naught, overcome most 
> hurdles. I only hope that we are able to gather enough support locally 
> to move this project forward, and I think that any answers supplied will 
> hopefully allow us to do just that. Thank You.

This certainly extends beyond find arts; I hope so as well!