The Wisconsin Library Association (WLA) is proud to announce the induction of Kathy Lynn Pletcher into the Wisconsin Library Hall of Fame, recognizing nearly five decades of extraordinary leadership, advocacy, mentorship, and service to libraries and communities throughout Wisconsin.
Induction into the Wisconsin Library Hall of Fame recognizes individuals who have made exceptional contributions to the statewide improvement of library service over a sustained period. Pletcher’s career has touched academic and public libraries, statewide policy and advocacy, library governance, professional development, and community building. Her nomination describes an influence on Wisconsin libraries that has been both broad and sustained for nearly 50 years.
Pletcher began her career at the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay’s Cofrin Library in 1976, overseeing Government Publications. During 35 years at UW–Green Bay, she advanced through increasingly responsible positions, ultimately serving as Associate Provost for Information Services and Chief Information Officer, overseeing library services, instructional technology, enterprise systems, networking and telecommunications, help desk, and web services. She also played a key role in the successful effort to secure $7 million in additional state funding for UW library collections and technology.
Her leadership within WLA has been equally significant. Pletcher served as chair of the Wisconsin Association of Academic Librarians in 1990, WLA President in 1992, and president of Wisconsin Library Trustees & Friends in 2012. She was named the 1994 WLA/DEMCO Librarian of the Year and the 2019 WLA Trustee of the Year, a rare distinction reflecting her impact both as a library professional and, later, as a trustee and advocate.
Pletcher has also been a driving force in WLA’s legislative advocacy. As co-chair of WLA’s Library Development & Legislation Committee from 2014–2019, she helped strengthen relationships with policymakers and shift library advocacy toward demonstrating the tangible local value of state investment in libraries. During that period, WLA successfully advocated for increased state support and helped advance multiple pieces of pro-library legislation.
“She taught us all to change the conversation related to library advocacy,” said Connie Meyer, Nicolet Library System Board President and retired director of the Bridges Library System. “The successful shift in strategy resulted in tangible benefits, including an increase in state aid after many years of decreased or flat funding.”
Pletcher’s statewide service extends well beyond WLA. She served on the Council on Library and Network Development (COLAND) from 2001–2019, including as chair, and led major statewide planning efforts examining the future of Wisconsin libraries and library systems. She also served for a decade on the WiscNet Board and has devoted more than two decades to the Nicolet Library System Board. She has served multiple terms on the Brown County Library Board, holding leadership positions on both boards.
Colleagues repeatedly point not only to Pletcher’s accomplishments, but also to the way she leads: by building relationships, creating consensus, recognizing talent in others, and helping people and organizations move toward shared goals. “In my personal experience Kathy Pletcher was exceptionally gifted in fostering collaboration and bipartisanship within and across competing interest groups,” said Ken Frazier, director emeritus of the UW–Madison General Library System, who has known Pletcher for more than 40 years. He described her as both a mentor and an exemplar of the “Wisconsin Idea” within the library community.
Mentorship has been another defining thread throughout Pletcher’s career. After retiring from UW–Green Bay in 2012, she joined MOR Associates as a leadership coach, helping develop the next generation of higher-education IT leaders. Within Wisconsin’s library community, she has long encouraged colleagues to take on leadership roles and offered guidance and support as they developed their own voices within the profession.
“Beyond her many accomplishments, Kathy’s greatest legacy may be the countless library professionals she has mentored,” said Paula Ganyard, Library Director of the Cofrin Library & Learning Center at UW–Green Bay. “I am the library director I am today because of what I learned under Kathy’s leadership.”
Perhaps the most fitting culmination of Pletcher’s lifetime of library service is unfolding in her own community of Denmark. Through OneDenmark, Pletcher has helped bring together community members, local government, library leaders, funders, and other partners to transform a former school into the new Community First Credit Union Community Center, which will include the return of a Brown County Library branch to Denmark. The project secured more than $4 million through Wisconsin’s Flexible Facilities Program, along with substantial private and community support. The Brown County Library Board has voted to name the new branch the Kathy Lynn Library, an enduring tribute to Pletcher’s commitment to ensuring that libraries remain places of connection, learning, and opportunity.
As the community center approached completion this summer, Pletcher reflected on the building’s past and future: “This building has served students for 100 years. Now, it’s being repurposed as a place to continue its educational mission for the next 100 years!”
That same sense of continuity defines Pletcher’s legacy in Wisconsin librarianship. Across decades of service—as librarian, administrator, WLA leader, advocate, trustee, mentor, volunteer, and community leader—she has helped strengthen not only individual libraries, but the relationships and systems that allow libraries across Wisconsin to thrive.
“Kathy has a remarkable ability to identify potential in others and help them develop into confident and effective leaders,” Ganyard wrote in support of her nomination. “Her mentorship has strengthened not only individual careers but also the profession by cultivating the next generation of library advocates and innovators.”
Pletcher will be recognized at the WLA Awards and Honors Banquet on Thursday, October 22 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. during the Wisconsin Library Association Annual Conference, at the Madison Marriott West in Middleton, WI.