Our Library

This 2018 documentary produced by Morgan Atkinson, is an examination of that most valuable community treasure — the Free Public Library. This thought-provoking video explores the value, meaning and impact of a free library. Is the community’s investment in a public library at least equal to its benefit from it? How does a library survive the spiraling momentum of digitizing text and making all ‘content’ increasingly available through computers and mobile devices.

Atkinson has fun with this deep topic, taking the audience on a tour of Kentucky’s largest public library system, Louisville. Along the way, the importance of a library to a democracy unfolds. Acclaimed Louisville actor/musician, Will Oldham, is the quirky yet reliably knowledgeable tour guide, playfully exposing the challenges faced by the public library system, while pointing to intriguing details of its history at varied branch locations.

Library relevance. This is the bottom-line quest and question of “Our Library”. Louisville’s library system is an ideal setting for this journey. We see closings of library branches, openings of others, and an insiders look at the library staples which keep the value of the library alive for generations to come. In other programs, Atkinson has taken viewers behind the walls of a monastery and inside the locker room of a basketball team. Now he shows why the public library is one of the most important institutions in a community.

It takes many hands, minds and hearts to make a documentary.
The following deserve sincere thanks as well as credit for bringing “Our Library” to the screen.

Written and Produced by Morgan C. Atkinson
Edited by Steve Hurst, Videobred, Inc
This program was made viable through the initial support of

Hardscuffle Inc/American Life in memory of Mary Hardaway Griffith

The generosity of many others enabled it to progress.
The Cookie Project
Friends of the Louisville Free Public Library
Louisville Free Public Library Foundation
David Andrews
Ann Bell
Roby Bell
Roberto Bonazzi
Bruce Brantley
Charles Buddeke
Craig Buthod
Karen Cassidy
Sara Foerster
Tom Foerster
Ralph Haas
Donna and John Hall
Patrice Huckaby
Laura Krueger
Judy Lippmann
William McNulty
Sallie Rhyne
Rosella Rudd
Kathleen Sandman
Mike Scholtz
James Sedwick
Don Stevens
Laura Thomas
Mike Ward
Teka Ward
David Wicks
Dan Wolf

The Louisville Film Society provided fiscal sponsorship for this program
Duckworks, Inc received tax incentives from the Commonwealth of Kentucky

Production Team Photography

Sean Anderson
Morgan C. Atkinson
Mark Crowner
Will Hartsock
Tommy Johns
John Kasey
Ben Newkirk

Music

Cheyenne Mize
Enoch Kim
Bob Ramsey
Pat Lentz
First Com

Songs

“Power and the Glory”, written by Phil Ochs, 1964. Performed by Will Oldham

“Who Doesn’t Love A Library”, by Morgan C. Atkinson & Yalonda JD Green

“Benchmark Cities Blues”, by Morgan C. Atkinson and the Naysayers

Singers

Yalonda JD Green
Will Oldham
The Benchmark Bluesmen—Jim Blanton, Lee Burchfield, Seth Cohen

Post Audio

Chris Greenwell, Downtown Recording

Field Audio

William Hartsock
Tommy Johns

Photographs & Images

Photos of 2009 flood from Louisville Free Public Library, thank you Paul Burns
The Library of Congress
“The Library In America” by Paul Dickson
Karen Gray, for use of Guelph Carnegie Library photo
Johna Picco, Filson Historical Society
WAVE TV & Kevin Harned
Courier-Journal and Louisville Times
Harpers Weekly, Peter Newell (Carnegie cartoon)
Steve Eilers- Bloody Monday art
Ethel King- Parkland Library drawing
Al Moreschi, graphic support

 Thank You’s

Gray Zeitz, Larkspur Press, Sarah Marlowe, Blanton House, Kelly Dunnagan
Laura Kelleher & Barbara Ledford-Crescent Hill Branch Library, Friends of the Parkland Library
John Crowner, Ken Neuhauser & Mr. Mustache, Krystal Pound & family
Dr. Elizabeth Fairhead

Chorus 1

Judy Lippmann
Makei Brandon
Capt. David Stallings
Michael Troutman
Theresa Burns
Colin Drake
Pat Zimmerman

 Chorus 2

Belinda Catman
Greg Fischer
Tiffany Mananga
Pat Zimmerman
Rachel Allen
Daemon Couture
Paul Howard
Jackie Evans
Ron Whitehead
Eleanor Jordan
Paul McGee

This is a production of the Cookie Project