Free for All: The Public Library / Film Screening and Panel Discussion

In honor of Library Giving Day, please join us at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater for a free preview screening of the new PBS/Independent Lens documentary, Free for All: The Public Library!

Free for All: The Public Library tells the story of the quiet revolutionaries who made a simple idea happen. From the pioneering women behind the “Free Library Movement” to today's librarians who service the public despite working in a contentious age of closures and book bans, meet those who created a civic institution where everything is free and the doors are open to all. 

Important Information: 

Doors open at 5:00pm, and the film will begin at 6:00pm. Audience members are encouraged to arrive early to enter to win library-themed prizes, participate in a photo booth, and shop a pop-up CALS Used Book Sale. April 1 is Library Giving Day, a national one-day event to encourage people to support their local library system. The screening is free and open to the public. 

Free Parking: 

We’re pleased to offer complimentary parking for all attendees. Parking is free in the library parking lot (across from the Main Library on Rock Street) or you can bring your ticket from the parking deck (next to the Main Library on Rock Street) inside the theater, and our staff will validate it for you.

About the Panelists: 

Judy Calhoun was the Director for the Southeast Arkansas Regional Library, a five-county, nine-branch system. She began her library career 30 years ago in a small town where she was the library manager for 14 years, 11 of those as a solo librarian. She has served as President of the Arkansas Library Association and President of the Association for Rural & Small Libraries.  

Nate Coulter practiced and taught law for more than 25 years before becoming the Executive Director of the Central Arkansas Library System (CALS) in 2016. CALS is a 15-branch system serving about 11% of the state’s population, primarily in Little Rock. Under Coulter’s guidance, CALS won substantial voter approval in a pair of 2021 and 2022 millage elections that secured the financial foundation of the library and enabled a $30M renovation of the Main Library. During Coulter’s tenure, CALS won the prestigious Jerry Kline Community Impact Prize (2021) and secured a federal court injunction (2023) blocking implementation of Arkansas’ book ban law.   

Adam Webb is the Executive Director of the Garland County Library and has been working in public libraries for the last 18 years. He holds a Master’s Degree in Library and Information Sciences from the University of North Texas and is a Certified Public Library Administrator. He is the President-Elect of the Arkansas Library Association and is a liaison to the American Library Association’s Committee on Legislation. Alongside CALS Executive Director Nate Coulter, Webb is a named plaintiff in the lawsuit challenging Arkansas’ book ban law. 

Karama Neal (moderator) is principal for the Neal Firm, LLC: Consulting and Mediation for Those on a Mission (www.nealfirm.co) and serves on the boards of the Central Arkansas Library System and the Housing Assistance Council. In 2021, she received a Presidential appointment to serve as administrator of the Rural Business-Cooperative Service, an agency of the Rural Development mission area at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Prior to that, she was President of Southern Bancorp Community Partners, a CDFI loan fund and financial development organization promoting economic mobility in rural Arkansas and Mississippi through development lending, public policy advocacy, and asset building programs.