(bright music) - PBS Utah and Doc Utah are working with the Utah Library Association Conference to present a special celebration and film screening about the public library.

PBS Utah's Director of Community Engagement Laura Durham is here with details.

Hi Laura.

Okay, this film, it's an independent lens, but it looks really good.

- Yeah, I had an opportunity to screen it.

And what I love about this particular documentary is it's just a celebration of the public library and librarians, and every city has a library or a mobile library that comes to them in Utah, and they are crucial preservers of democracy and problem solvers.

Librarians told me that.

- Oh, the librarians told you that?

Well, they're kind of unsung heroes, you know?

- Yeah, for sure.

I mean, they have amazing relationships with their patrons, whether they're students at school libraries or public libraries.

Librarians have to know a lot of information, and they get to know their patrons really well and recommend a lot of books.

And I think a lot of people know libraries are about so much more than books these days.

- Oh boy, are they ever, I mean, they're just incredible community public spaces.

And that sense of community right now is incredibly important, yeah.

- So, sorry.

I was just gonna say, we're really excited to work with the Utah Library Association.

We thought the best way to get this documentary out there is to go where all the librarians are.

So we're joining their Library Association Conference in St. George, and we're gonna do the special screening for the librarians, but it's open up to the public.

We're gonna have a lot of food, so we want everyone to come and celebrate libraries with us.

- Oh, that's great.

And tell us the name of the film then.

- Yes, the name of the film is called "Free For All: The Public Library."

And it's a great title because it's free and open to everyone.

And you can borrow books for free, music for free, movies for free, a sewing machine, all sorts of things.

- And people go there to use computers anyway.

I'm so glad you're doing it, because libraries need all the encouragement.

- They do.

They do.

- Anyway, thank you for coming on.

And if you'd like to know more about that upcoming celebration in St. George with the Utah Library Association and PBS Utah, it's May 14th from six to 8:00 PM at the Dolores Dore Eccles Fine Art Center in St. George, go to pbsutah.org/events, pbsutah.org/events.

I'm Mary Dickson, thanks for watching "Contact."

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