PdC library director retires
Nancy Ashmore (left) says goodbye to a frequent patron during a retirement reception in Nancy’s honor, prior to her retirement on Oct. 15. (Photo by Correne Martin)
By Correne Martin
After 20 years at the helm of the Prairie du Chien Memorial Library, Director Nancy Ashmore retired on Oct. 15.
For now, the librarian assistant, Caitlin Bittner, will serve as the interim director, and the library board will evaluate the situation in January.
Before stepping away from her position, Ashmore reflected fondly on her two decades of local library service and how things have changed over the years.
Originally from Fennimore, Nancy achieved her master’s degree in library science while in the Navy, where she worked as a processing technician. She spent 10 years in the United Kingdom teaching basic library skills to citizens of London, Cornwall and Wales.
She then came back to the States and worked at the Arlington County, Va., library for two and a half years. She did copycat logging there, cataloguing new materials when they came into the system.
Next, she returned to the U.K. It was in London that she met her husband, Peter.
When she later got sent back to the States, he came over a year later and they were married. It was 1997 that they settled back in Fennimore. She was retired from the military.
She started working at the Lancaster library, where she spent three years part-time. The focus in those days was on automating the card catalogue system, which officially began in ‘96.
Nancy took the director’s position in Prairie du Chien when then-director Lois Gilberts left.
“She knew I had the qualifications, which were hard to come by,” Nancy said. So, Lois was instrumental in bringing Nancy in as her replacement.
“What I started doing was, some of the books had barcodes on the side and some did not, so I worked on making that consistent,” Nancy recalled.
In 2003, the library started seeing patron computers thanks to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s move to equip all the country’s libraries with such. Since, the library has added to that with more patron computers, including laptops and tablets.
When she first began her career in Prairie du Chien, she said, the city was union. However, that ended in 2010. “It became a different way of doing things because so many of the rules were made for us prior to that. There’s been more flexibility since,” she shared.
In her early years, staffing was fairly stable, she said. A couple years later, the older staff began retiring. Then, 2010 to 2014 was a period of quite a bit of change. This meant an influx of new staff learning how to operate things.
One of the toughest yet most fulfilling challenges of her time was the library expansion project in 2017-18.
“Lois had started talking to the board about expansion back when she was here. She had reports showing we needed more space, more specific kinds of space like study rooms and storage space, and a larger number of books for the population we had,” Nancy stated. “It was such a great relief when everything came together. With huge amounts of help from the community and donations, we got it done.
“At one point, I was walking around the construction, and I got tears in my eyes. I couldn’t believe we had actually done it.”
Another unforgettable period came when the coronavirus pandemic shut down the library building for months.
“The frustrating part was trying to find ways we could still serve our patrons. We were able to do curbside delivery, people could call with questions, we printed documents and handed them out the door,” she explained.
Currently, the library is back open and operating close to its previous hours.
As Nancy retires, she plans to continue as a member of the 20th Century Study Club, “a fascinating organization” affiliated with the Prairie du Chien library, that’s “been in existence a really long time.” It was established by doctors’ and lawyers’ wives who lived on Beaumont Road.
“It started as an educational group with tea. Now we bring coffee and treats and report on books we’ve read. It’s wonderful,” she said.
Her parting wish for the library is that they can get a foundation established, which Nancy believes would help tremendously for certain projects the library needs.
She also noted that the library capital campaign, which helped with the expansion project, is close to being paid off.
In her spare time back in Fennimore, Nancy said she’ll enjoy more time mowing and gardening on hers and Peter’s farm. They also desire to travel, particularly to both U.S. coasts and to the U.K. to see Peter’s family.
She’s over the moon at the moment because of the arrival of her daughter’s first child, a baby girl, born on Oct. 11.
Library board President Linda Munson said Nancy will be missed from the library.
“She’s become a good friend. We’ve worked together a long time,” Munson said. “She really was such a big part of the expansion and we were lucky we could count on her. We are grateful for all she did.”
