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Boston Globe
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Still very much in circulation
'Free for All,' part of PBS's 'Independent Lens' documentary series, airs on GBH 2 Tuesday at 10 p.m. and will be available for streaming on Advertisement The Webster Free Circulating Library staff, New York City, c. 1904. Credit: New York Public Library Logsdon, who serves as narrator, is a library lover of long standing. By the time she was 12 she'd visited almost a hundred, in most of the 50 states. Overall, there are currently 17,00 public library buildings in the United States. It's useful to specify 'buildings,' since many public library systems have multiple facilities. The After an extended introductory segment, the documentary visits the BPL, the first urban public library, founded in 1848. Visits are also paid to a neighborhood library on New York's Lower East Side, which has provided services to immigrants for more than a century; a library system in rural Oregon facing closure, because of lack of funding; and the Salt Lake City Public Library, whose public events to attract new patrons are pretty spectacular. Advertisement Those visits occur within a basically chronological narrative. Expect to encounter the names of Melvil Dewey, who in addition to devising a certain decimal system of classification was a serial sexual harasser, and Andrew Carnegie, whose funding of more than 1600 public libraries in the United States was underwritten by robber-baron exploitation. 'Free for All' employs vintage photographs, archival and modern-day footage (book-return conveyor belts!), animation (not a good idea), even artwork by the painter Jacob Lawrence. Young patrons at the self-checkout at the Presidio branch of the San Francisco Public Library. Lucie Faulknor There are also talking-head interviews. Some of the interviewees are well known, such as Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden and Harvard historian Jill Lepore. Others aren't. One of the pleasures 'Free for All' has to offer is making the acquaintance of Timmins, who works in the rural community of Seymour, sees her job as 'throwing a party every day.' Among the partygoers are a family with 14 kids who are being home-schooled. They use the library a lot . That family is a reminder of the diversity (uh-oh, that word) of library patrons. They include home schoolers, computer users who don't have online access at home, immigrants taking English-language courses, homeless people keeping out of the cold. 'What I'm doing now as a librarian is a bit like being a social worker,' a San Francisco librarian says. Advertisement There's so much in the documentary to like — and a fair amount not to. Logsdon braids together her family history and personal experiences with the larger narrative. It's an unnecessary attempt to enliven and humanize a story that's already plenty lively and humane. The result comes across as, at best, self-indulgent, and, at worst, distracting. A score that's alternately chirpy and goopy doesn't help. Perhaps it's fitting that 'Free for All' offers a few causes for complaint. In so doing, it reflects its subject — and the double meaning of that title. Some of it will make you proud and feel inspired. Some of it will make you angry. Sometimes it may even make you tear up. Most of all, maybe, it'll make you glad you have a library card. Wait, you do have a library card, don't you — and if you don't, why not? Mark Feeney is a Globe arts writer . Mark Feeney can be reached at
Boston Globe
26-02-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
GBH relaunches ‘Basic Black' as ‘GBH News Rooted,' plans to bring back version of ‘Greater Boston' later this year
'GBH News Rooted' will run as a 30 minute show on Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m. on GBH 2, with repeats on Friday at 7:30 p.m. on GBH 44 beginning April 8. A radio version of the broadcast will air on 89.7 and CAI later in the year. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'It is my distinct joy and pleasure to serve as host of GBH News Rooted, following in the footsteps of luminary journalists like Callie Crossley, Kim McLarin, Darren Duarte, and the late, legendary Sarah-Ann Shaw,' Alston said. 'All of these exemplars advanced conversations on issues critical to Black and other communities of color during their tenures, and this moment is ripe for me to carry the torch.' Advertisement It was not immediately clear what platforms would carry the new version of 'Greater Boston.' GBH had At the time, chief executive Susan Goldberg said the shows 'no longer draw enough viewers to justify the cost of making them for television' and added that they would revamped as 'digital-first programming.' In a statement Wednesday, she said the return of the two programs reflects a positive trend for the organization, which is the largest producer of PBS programming and one of two NPR news stations in Boston. Advertisement 'GBH News is growing on many fronts — from our reporting and programs, to the number of people we're reaching, to the support our community is giving us,' Goldberg said. The relaunch of 'Basic Black' as 'GBH News Rooted' and 'Greater Boston' also come just weeks after The organization made a slew of other programming announcements Wednesday, including that interim ''Morning Edition' host Mark Herz is now the show's permanent anchor, and that its popular dayside show 'Boston Public Radio' has added a weekly media analysis segment during its Friday show held at Boston Public Library. Aidan Ryan can be reached at
