System Merger Exploration

In 2023, building on a strong foundation of collaboration, the Nicolet Library System and Outagamie Waupaca Library System launched a joint strategic planning process to better understand the needs and priorities of their shared and distinct stakeholders. Input from over 130 participants, including system and member library staff and trustees, along with additional data collection, helped clarify future priorities and surfaced a key objective: to explore the potential of formalizing their partnership through a merger.

Between August and November of 2025, we completed phase one of the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction’s Public Library System Merger Guide. We identified several potential benefits of a merger, including:

• Strengthen staffing depth and succession planning,
• Reduce duplication and administrative overhead,
• Enhance flexibility, expertise, and service sustainability,
• Simplify communication, onboarding, and operations, and most importantly,
• Improve services for member libraries and the communities they serve.

In January of 2026, both system boards voted to proceed with the next phase of the merger exploration.