Events Calendar

Join us in the children's area at the Central library for an unstructured preschool playdate. We'll have engaging, open ended toys for your little one to explore while you connect and meet other preschool age children and families. There is no start time, no structured plan, rather a time to come to the library and play and expect to find other children your child's age to engage with! Siblings of course are welcome! 

READ and PLAY together with children under age 5! Engaging with books, songs and playful experiences all help children develop communication skills, patience, empathy, and pre-reading skills​ and helps to build a lifelong love of reading.

Library programs are always free. Siblings and childcare groups are welcome.

Are you behind on your rent because of the pandemic, either directly or indirectly? You are not alone. Many people are experiencing financial hardship right now.

The African Center for Community Development will be at the Hawthorne Library on Mondays, 11:00 am - 6:00 pm, to help individuals and families who owe back rent apply for Dane CORE 2.0 assistance.  For questions about the program or to set up an appointment, please call African Center at (608) 957-5623 or (608) 294-0066. More info at https://africancentermadison.org/housing-support/ (link is external)

Calling all school age kids! Join us for a week of fun activities at the library during MMSD's spring break!

Today we will be making our own necklaces with polymer clay pendants! Use this fun oven bake clay to make your own jewelry!

Happy Spring Break! Swing by the central library and spend some time making a fun, spring themed craft in the children's programming room. Grab some wonderful books from our collection to read and take home, or stay for a while to read and play. There will be a different activity each day this week. Suggested for kids ages 5 and up, siblings welcome. 

Are you looking for something to do on a day without school?  Stop by the library and make a craft!  We will have a different project each day this week.  Stop by to make your craft and pick up a book or movie to take home with you.

Today we are making folded paper bookmarks.

Join us on early release days for library fun, you never know what might happen! Projects especially chosen for the school-age crowd, all ages welcome with adult help.

Do you love to have fun? Be silly? Tell stories? Whoopensocker is for you!  Whoopensocker teaching artists have been working with local elementary school students in Madison for years. 

To help kick off the We Read Youth Voices Writing contest for 2023, we are delighted to welcome their teaching artists to the library for fun, interactive workshops that encourage creativity, expression, writing, collaboration, and performance. 

Community teaching artists will engage kiddos to share their great ideas through games, writing, and performance. No pressure, just fun. No previous experience necessary, all ideas are good ideas! 

This workshop is designed for kids ages 7 and up. ​

Create your own avatar by sketching in 2D on graph paper and then designing in 3D using Tinkercad! Your avatar will be a visual representation of your identity or a fictional character’s identity. When done, you can share images of your creation with your friends and family!

For ages 8 to 12.

Goodman South Library will be hosting the Mini Archiving Lab in March and April 2023. The Mini Archiving Lab is a collection of portable equipment that can be used to digitize analog materials, such as home VHS movies, audio cassettes, photographs, negatives and more. Stop by Goodman South Library during select dates for a tutorial on how to use the library's Mini Archiving Lab. Tutorial duration is approximately 20-30 minutes. If you arrive while a tutorial is in progress, please be patient as we can return to earlier material as we finish. We recommend arriving right at the half hour mark (2:30, 3:00, 3:30, etc).

Tutorial Dates:

March

• Monday 3/13, 2:30-4pm
• Monday 3/27, 2:30-4pm

April

• Tuesday 4/11, 6:00-7:30pm
• Monday 4/25,  2:30-4pm

Following the tutorial, you will be able to make an appointment during library hours to use the equipment (up to 2 hours per day) for your personal archiving project. Patrons must bring some form of external storage—a portable hard drive, or a thumb drive—on which digital files can be stored.

The Mini Archiving Lab supports the following formats: VHS tapes, DVDs (not BluRay), audio cassettes, photographs (including negatives and slides), and other paper-based documents.

Call 608-266-6395 for more information.

https://www.madisonpubliclibrary.org/resources/services/personal-archivi...

A representative from the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center will be tabling in the front the library from 10am until 12pm to recruit for a research study. For more information on the open studies at Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, visit their website at https://www.adrc.wisc.edu/volunteer-study

Read aloud to a furry friend from Alliance of Therapy Dogs at Lakeview Library. Bring a favorite book or try a new one from our collection. First come, first served.

Drop-in and play Nintendo Switch and board games.

Youth must be 10 years and older to attend.

Join us for this exciting Dungeons and Dragons campaign for kids ages 9 - 17! Set in the world of Krixth, The Dragon Queen Draco Vonet needs your aid. Travel to her keep and see what she needs. What adventure and mystery await you on the way? What will occur in this Ballad of Interesting Events?

This program is currently full and sign-ups are closed for the time being. Check back later for additional availability, or call (608) 288-6160 for more information.

Join us for MEA's book club!  This month we are reading The Bookseller of Kabul by Åsne Seierstad.  A limited number of copies are available at the Meadowridge Library to check out!

A western reporter shares what she learned as a burka wearing woman living with a bookseller's family in Afghanistan. Life after the fall of the Taliban includes stories both horrifying and uplifting.

Play Minecraft in both survival and creative worlds!  There is a limited number of computers, so participants will take turns as needed.

Mondays January 9 - May 22, with no meeting on January 16 (library closed).

The Madison Writing Assistance (MWA) program offers free, one-to-one writing support for community members at library branches throughout the city. Our friendly, experienced writing coaches are happy to help with writing projects across a wide range of genres, including resumes, cover letters, application essays, grant proposals, fiction writing, memoirs, and more.

Schedule an appointment online with the link below, by phone, or in person.

MWA services are made possible through generous donations from the Evjue Foundation and UW Anonymous Fund, along with administrative and program support from the UW-Madison English Department, the UW-Madison Writing Center, and our Library and neighborhood center partners.

The Madison Writing Assistance (MWA) program offers free, one-to-one writing support for community members at library branches throughout the city. Our friendly, experienced writing coaches are happy to help with writing projects across a wide range of genres, including resumes, cover letters, application essays, grant proposals, fiction writing, memoirs, and more.

Schedule an appointment online with the link below, by phone, or in person.

MWA services are made possible through generous donations from the Evjue Foundation and UW Anonymous Fund, along with administrative and program support from the UW-Madison English Department, the UW-Madison Writing Center, and our Library and neighborhood center partners.

Our scale model of Meadowridge Library is finally complete! We've been working on this model for over a year, and whether you've been helping with the project since the start or are just hearing about it for the first time, we'd love for you to celebrate with us and see the finished product! The model is made from foam core and based on the Meadowridge Library's blueprint. It is populated with standees of library users, library staff members, and objects in the library. Everything in the model has been created by library users and staff members!

This event is open to all ages. Light refreshments will be served. 

The Madison Writing Assistance (MWA) program offers free, one-to-one writing support for community members at library branches throughout the city. Our friendly, experienced writing coaches are happy to help with writing projects across a wide range of genres, including resumes, cover letters, application essays, grant proposals, fiction writing, memoirs, and more.

Schedule an appointment online with the link below, by phone, or in person.

MWA services are made possible through generous donations from the Evjue Foundation and UW Anonymous Fund, along with administrative and program support from the UW-Madison English Department, the UW-Madison Writing Center, and our Library and neighborhood center partners.

Tell Us! is a survey initiative that gives residents an opportunity to provide feedback to the library and share their visions for improvement for Madison's south and west side libraries. Library Planner Rynn K. will be on hand to facilitate and take notes as a small group of residents discuss the survey and provide feedback. 

Light refreshments provided. 

Registration required.

Chess meets the second and fourth Monday of every month. All ages and skill levels are welcome.