Gregory Holch

Women’s History Month: A Pathfinder
(You can download a pdf version here.)

Introduction:
This is a pathfinder for Women’s History Month (the month of March in the United
States). It can help lead you to resources about Women’s History. Women’s History, as
you might imagine, is a gigantic topic. It can include the entire history of women in the
world or in the United States. You will want to narrow this topic into an area that
interests you. One of the topics you might investigate is how women got the right to vote.
Other topics could be the history of women in sports, or in science, or in writing or the
arts.

You might even want to select one particular woman and learn about her life. Remember: if you have a dream in life, and you can find one person who has
accomplished a similar dream, then you can follow their example and reach your own
dream.

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January 2012's KidLit Drink Night reminded me of a scene out of the TV show, Entourage. I arrived at The Public House on East 41st Street in New York City only to find a line outside and the entrance guarded by bouncers.

"Wow!" I thought, "The children's book world has reached new heights of glamor."

I told one of the bouncers that I was with a group of librarians, and he said, " Go right in."

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The First Few Pages is a "reader’s advisory" program. The purpose of reader’s advisory is to help you find books you might like to read. In this program, I will read you the first few pages of a book, and I hope that this will inspire you to run out and borrow or buy a copy to read. This is Pilot Program #2: Greg Holch Reads Brat Farrar.

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The First Few Pages is a "reader's advisory" program that grew out of an assignment for a course taught by Pauline Rothstein at the Palmer School of Library and Information Science. It was inspired in part by a presentation by Lois Moore of the New York Public Library. Read More 

Great news for fans of the animated films of Hayao Miyazaki and his colleagues at Studio Ghibli. The people who bring you the New York International Children's Film Festival have arranged a retrospective of all 15 films produced by Studio Ghibli from 1984 to 2009.

The films will be shown from December 16 to January 12 at the IFC Center in New York City (323 Avenue of the Americas at West 3rd Street) with multiple showings of each one. Films include such well-known titles as Ponyo, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Castle in the Sky, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Porco Rosso, and Howl's Moving Castle.

Additional films that you may not have seen include Whisper of the Heart, Only Yesterday, The Cat Returns, Pom Poko, My Neighbors the Yamadas, and

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I attended the Fourth Annual Biblioball last Saturday evening. It took place at the Bell House in Brooklyn. I arrived late-ish, and although it was advertised as lasting from 8pm - 3am, the Jay Vons finished playing by 1:00. If you are thinking of going next year, I would recommend arriving early. The party did continue after the bands stopped. People were still dancing to a dj in the front room as I left.

The theme was "biblio noir", and as I stepped into the light to get my picture taken by Jeremy Balderson in front of Gilbert Ford’s one-of-a-kind backdrop, I intinctively turned up the collar of my dinner jacket to keep out the chill Brooklyn fog.

The music was excellent, but LOUD. A sign at the coat check window advertised "Ear Plugs $1.00". However, I had

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And here it is...

My Master of Science degree in Library and Information Science.

I graduated in September, and the degree arrived a few weeks ago. I got straight A's.

For those of you just tuning in now, this is the conclusion of a story: my two-year journey through library school.

How did I end up in library school?

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Biblioball 2011: Biblio Noir
The Bell House
Brooklyn, NY

The Desk Set has just announced that tickets have gone on sale for the 4th annual Biblioball.

"Every winter the librarians of New York City let down their hair, dust off their dancing shoes and party with the literati. Archivists, authors, readers and nerds of all kinds gather to enjoy live music, trapeze, a bit of film and some of the city's finest DJs at Brooklyn's most wildly bookish event: the Desk Set's Biblioball."

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Well-known young adult and children's book author William Sleator died on August 3, 2011. This afternoon, I attended a memorial in his honor held in the auditorium of the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City.

His longtime editor, Ann Durell McCory, spoke, as did Elizabeth Law, Susan Van Metre, and Stephen Weiner. His brothers Tycho and Danny gave emotional readings from some of his books and from letters written by friends and fans. Tiedan Yao played some of William Sleator's favorite pieces by Ravel and Debussy on the piano.

William Sleator wrote 26 novels, four books for younger readers, short stories, and a collection of autobiographical stories called Oddballs. I re-read Oddballs last night, and it's an excellent

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The annual meeting of the Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO) was this afternoon from 2:00-5:00 p.m. Norman J. Jacknis (Director of Cisco IBSG Public Sector and METRO Board President) announced that Jason Kucsma would be the new METRO Director.

Suzi Oppenheimer (New York State 37th Senatorial District) and Rachel Sterne (Chief Digital Officer, New York City) received awards and gave brief talks. Maureen Sullivan (President-Elect of the American Library Association) gave the keynote address. (Hey, Seth Godin, she knows who you are! She mentioned your writing on user experience in libraries.)

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