Sledge named chamber’s first ‘Community Servant of the Year’

MADISON – Sarah Sledge was named Madison’s “Community Servant of the Year,” a new honor with Madison Chamber of Commerce’s Small Business Awards.

Sarah Sledge, branch manager of Madison Public Library, was named “Community Servant of the Year.” (CONTRIBUTED)

Sledge describes the library as a “neutral location, a place newcomers and veteran residents seek out connections with each other and larger community groups … and a great spot to identify a community’s priorities.”

Studies show most library users are voters. The library is a thermometer for a city’s makeup, Sledge said. “Library users are engaged in the world around them. They seek to learn, and many are willing to share their ideas.”

Madison librarians don’t lurk around corners shushing patrons. “We’re always thinking in terms of a welcoming space that fits visitors’ lifestyles … a challenge in today’s world because people use the library for many more reasons than even a decade ago,” Sledge said.

In contemporary libraries, people connect, verbally and electronically, yet “still value the library as a place for quiet reflection, relaxation and study,” Sledge said. These needs drove the library’s current expansion.

Residents want meeting spaces for groups of all sizes, large events and even performances. “But they (want) quiet places to study and read,” Sledge said.

As branch manager, Sledge is pleased with library advocacy and subsequent inclusion in Madison’s 2013-2019 Capital Improvement Plan and implementation of Madison County’s first radio frequency identification (RFID). Also, Madison Children’s Garden is “a revolutionary joint project with the city, led by Kristen Kulavich.”

In 2007, the American Library Association selected Sledge as an “Emerging Leader.” She is a member of Madison Optimist Club.

Sledge earned a bachelor’s degree in commercial French at the University of North Alabama and a master’s degree in library and information services at the University of Alabama.

Her husband George works as a civil engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Daughter Searcy is a 2013 UA graduate. Son Raney is a UA sophomore.

Sledge said her hobbies are “knitting, gardening, time at the lake with family and friends and, of course, READING.”