04/25/2026
Come see the first installment in the new Pothole Pictures Film Series season at the Shelburne Falls Theater at Memorial Hall! Today (April 25) at 2pm, there will be a showing of the documentary Free for All: The Public Library.
Special Saturday Matinee Event!
April 25 at 2 pm Free for All: the Public Library
How did our wonderful free, public libraries come to exist? The Shelburne Falls Women’s Club and Pothole Pictures are partnering with the Arms Library to show this film, which tells the story.
As many as 75 to 80 percent of public libraries were started by local women’s clubs, as part of the “Free Library Movement.”
Join us to celebrate Library Week, and to honor the “quiet revolutionaries” who made modern libraries possible.
Stay for lively conversation with local librarians after the film.
and enjoy live music from a sextet before the film
Adults — $6. School age children — Free !
Panel of Librarians:
Sarah Hertel-Fernandez, Director, Belding Memorial Library, Ashfield, MA
Chelsea Jordan-Makely, Former Director, Griswold Memorial Library, Colrain, MA
Emily Willis, Librarian and Digital Literacy Educator, Mohawk Trail Regional School, Buckland, MA
Ivan Ussach, Director, Warwick Free Public Library, Warwick, MA
Laurie Wheeler, Director, Arms Library, Shelburne Falls, MA
The free screening of this film is thanks to generous support from the Carnegie Corporation of NY.
