The People's Palace

Filmmaker Graham Judd's PBS-aired The People's Palace serves up a loving portrait of the New York Public Library, with a particular focus on key research libraries (including the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and the Science, Industry and Business Library), as well as the burgeoning interest in digital collections. Narrated by Tim Hopper, the documentary looks at the history of the NYPL, which opened in May 1911 and attracted 30,000 visitors the first day (“curiosity,” as one librarian interviewee notes, was and still is the “only criterion for admission”), the development of the branch system, and a handful of the treasures in NYPL's 45-million item collections (including Charles Dickens' reading copy of A Christmas Carol and George Washington's homemade recipe for beer). While much has changed over nearly 100 years, the former main library (now the Humanities and Social Sciences Library) still uses pneumatic tubes to send patron requests to staff members who retrieve reference items from the stacks: five million volumes housed on 88 miles of shelving. A fine paean to a wonderful institution (instantly recognizable, thanks to those sculptured lions), this solid overview aimed at general viewers is recommended. Aud: P. (R. Pitman)