“Ex Libris: New York Public Library” is a three-hour, 17-minute documentary that does, indeed, look at the New York Public Library system. Major snooze, right? Well, yeah. But then again, not really.

Often in “Ex Libris,” Frederick Wiseman’s documentary about the New York Public Library, the camera lingers on faces of people attending library events — lectures, concerts, performances, ...

Every book has a story about its creation. How did the idea for this book get started? As with most of my novels, the idea for Ex Libris began with an incident. My wife and I were on a pre-Christmas ...