A new documentary checks out the many ways libraries are a ‘Free For All’ April 29, 202512:47 PM ET
David Bianculli, 6-Minute Listen, Transcript
Special collections at the Boston Public Library. Lucie Faulknor/PBS
The new PBS Independent Lens documentary about America’s public library system arrives with a very clever, two-edged title: Free for All: The Public Library.
The “Free for All” part refers, of course, to the beauty and generosity of the library system, which lends books, for free, to virtually anyone. But “Free for All” also refers to the many fights surrounding that idealistic institution: fights against segregated libraries; the banning of books; tax cuts and local library closures; targeted reductions of federal funds; and, quite recently and famously, “Drag Queen Story Hour.”
Free for All is co-directed by Dawn Logsdon, who also narrates, and Lucie Faulknor. At first, it sets out as a nostalgic memoir, with Logsdon explaining why and how, as a child, her parents took her on road trips traversing the entire country — always stopping at local libraries along the way.
