Kristine “Kris” Adams Wendt is a distinguished leader in Wisconsin’s Library community. Kris has demonstrated unwavering passion for and commitment to building strong libraries through organized common-sense advocacy at local, county and state levels. Her selfless sharing of her skills, knowledge, and expertise with library colleagues and elected officials across the state has been nothing less than extraordinary.
Kris’s leadership and ability to unite people for a common cause was evidenced early in her career while working at the Rhinelander District Library from 1974 to 2008. As Children’s Librarian, Kris collaborated with Headwaters Reading Council, Rhinelander School District and three northern Wisconsin library systems to launch the Rhinelander Children’s Book Fest in 1987. This two-day event drawing librarians and educators from 26 northern counties featured presentations by librarians from the Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC), hands-on examination of award-winning books, and networking with peers. Book Fest drew 300 participants at its peak and marked its 35th year in 2023.
Hired in 2011 as a Wisconsin Valley Library Service consultant, Kris has created and engaged a regional network of library administrators and community members to advocate for libraries for almost 14 years. As the foremost strategist on legislative matters impacting northcentral Wisconsin’s public library ecosystem, Kris is adept at guiding effective advocacy and communication strategies with elected policymakers at municipal, county and state levels. Her unparalleled advocacy work, and ability to make less experienced library champions feel empowered, continues to inspire colleagues throughout the WVLS area and across the state.
Kris has been an active member of the Wisconsin Library Association since 1974. During her 50 years of service to the Association, she has held various leadership roles including WLA Secretary, Chair of the Children’s & Young Adult Services Section (now the Youth Services Section), Director at Large on WLA’s public library division board, and has held positions on the Nominations Committee, the Long-Range Planning Committee, and the Intellectual Freedom Committee. She was named the WLA Librarian of the Year in 1993. The Rhinelander District Library was selected as Wisconsin Library Association (WLA) Library of the Year in 2005 when Kris was Director. At that time, the Awards and Honors Committee noted the impressive way community support was galvanized following major budget cutbacks that threatened dismantling of Rhinelander’s joint library district just two years earlier.
Kris’ first practical experience with the legislative process was in the early 1990s as the WLA liaison to the Wisconsin Council for Local History, organizing the youth librarian community within WLA and WEMTA behind legislation to create and fund the Office of School Services at Wisconsin Historical Society to address a need for new fourth grade Wisconsin history materials. Though new to the process, Kris proved to be an effective, strategic advocate and quickly assumed the role of mentor, teaching other librarians about legislative advocacy – a role she continues to play today. The Office of School Services campaign motivated Wisconsin youth librarians to become engaged activists for state library aid in the biennial budget process. Over the decades, she has fostered a legion of librarian advocates across the state.
Her demonstrated leadership, professionalism, and ability to think astutely and communicate expertly has brought significant value to a wide range of WLA initiatives. However, her involvement as a long-standing member of the WLA Library Development and Legislation Committee (LD&L) has arguably had the greatest impact on the association and Wisconsin libraries overall. Kris chaired the annual Library Legislative Day for several years and is still an active volunteer on the event planning committee today. (It is no small coincidence that the Northwoods delegation to this event is always the largest and most well prepared.) Her attention to detail, expert writing skills, expansive memory, and meticulous historical files have proven invaluable to LD&L committee members, who often call upon Kris to create or edit budget briefs, background papers, and talking points on new legislation. According to WLA Government Relations Advisor Steve Conway, “In 14 years, I have not witnessed a single question that has come up that Kris did not have the institutional knowledge to fully answer.” During the past decade, as committee co-chair and secretary, Kris has helped craft political strategies that secured millions in state funding for Wisconsin’s regional public library systems.
As a current member of the Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC) Advisory Board and Wisconsin Humanities Board, as well as a former member of the Council on Library and Network Development (COLAND) and State Superintendent’s Advisory Council on Rural Schools, Libraries and Communities, Kris has been a long-standing champion of youth library services and for equitable citizen access to all sizes and types of libraries. In recognition of her efforts, she received the International Reading Association Award for Exemplary Service in the Promotion of Literacy in 1995 and the State Superintendent’s Friend of Education Award in 2004.
Former Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor Barbara Lawton sums up best the skills and abilities Kris brings to her advocacy work: “[Kris] is held in the highest regard in her community, a generous public servant and highly effective leader in a variety of settings, a woman who can move groups to get a job done with good humor and grace… [She] is a woman whose intellectual agility makes her a quick study and smart analyst, even in policy areas new to her; a woman whose years of diplomatically and successfully navigating local and state governments as they wrote budgets related to her work demonstrate her great capacity for both short- and long-term planning. And I was impressed to discover in her a high level of political acumen not shared by countless people who have made it their life’s work.”