City of Madison, WI

09/29/2025 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 09/29/2025 09:06

Alicia Ashman Library to Celebrate 25 Years of Service On October 11

MADISON, WI - Join staff and community members in celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Alicia Ashman Library on Saturday, October 11 from 10am - 12pm with a variety of activities highlighting the unique history of the library and the many patrons who have visited over the years.

The event will include remarks from Library Director Tana Elias, as well as Margie Navarre-Saaf, who was the first Supervisor at Alicia Ashman Library and went on to become the Borrower Services Manager for all nine Madison Public Libraries.

"Alicia Ashman Library has always offered something special to visitors, and I'm looking forward to talking about all the changes I've seen from 2000 to today," said Navarre-Saaf. "The celebration is a wonderful opportunity to remember together the people, services, and experiences we've shared within the walls of Alicia Ashman Library and envision a bright future for library service on the west side of Madison, too."

Attendees can participate in all-ages activities, such as:

  • Unveiling the Alicia Ashman Library time capsule from 2000

  • Viewing a collection of notes, drawings, pictures and more that were left in returned materials or in the book drops over the years with a "Book Drop Memories Discovered" exhibit

  • Putting together a custom-made 25th Anniversary edition Alicia Ashman Library community puzzle

  • Making a Mini Cake Sculpture with Bubbler Artist-in-Residence National Velvet

  • Sharing their first library memory, what they love about the library, and their hopes for the library of the future by adding candles to a non-edible cake created by Bubbler Artist-in-Residence National Velvet

Alicia Ashman Library is the most recently completed new library to be added to the Madison Public Library system, opening in its current location on High Point Road on October 14, 2000.

"It was really a community effort to get the library built," said Susan Hamlin, who served on the Common Council from 1991-2001 and made it a priority to establish library service on Madison's far west side.

Alongside project Co-Chair Donna Gray and former Madison Public Library Board President Tripp Widder, Hamlin worked to secure a spot in a neighborhood shopping center. While commercial businesses didn't want the corner lot, the large space was perfect for a new library.

As part of its $1.5 million fundraising effort, the Madison Public Library Foundation worked with Madison entrepreneurs Terrance and Judith Paul to name the library in honor of Alicia Ashman, a longtime Library Board and former Common Council member, who passed away in 2016.

On October 14, 2000, Ashman and Hamlin cut the grand opening ribbon together. According to Hamlin, Alicia Ashman Library's opening represented one example of libraries becoming not only places for literacy, but for community and connection.

"Madison was built on a neighborhood concept," Hamlin said, "and libraries contribute to that neighborhood concept."

City of Madison, WI published this content on September 29, 2025, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on September 29, 2025 at 15:06 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]