Wisconsin Library Heritage Center Announces 2022 Library Hall of Fame Inductee: Miriam Erickson

The Wisconsin Heritage Center, an initiative of the Wisconsin Library Association Foundation, has announced Door County area retired librarian and long-time library advocate Miriam Erickson as the 2022 inductee into the Wisconsin Library Hall of Fame.

Induction into the Wisconsin Library Hall of Fame is granted to individuals who have made an exceptional contribution to the statewide improvement of library service in Wisconsin over a sustained period. Erickson has served and supported Wisconsin’s libraries for more than 50 years, including a 30-year career as a school library media specialist at Gibraltar High School (Fish Creek), local and state-level library trustee involvement on the Door County Library Board, the Door County Library Foundation, and the Nicolet Federated Library System Board. In 1991, she was appointed by Governor Tommy Thompson as a member of the Wisconsin Council on Library and Network Development (COLAND) and has subsequently been appointed for successive three-year terms by five different governors since then.

On a national level, Erickson was appointed to serve as delegate to the White House Conference on Library and Information Services in 1991 and helped to make recommendations that served as a political platform for national library advocacy for years. Through her work on the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction PK-12 Technology Plan Committee, she helped influence the use of educational technologies of all types in statewide PK-12 school districts. Retired as a librarian since 1999, Erickson continues to advocate for all types of libraries and remains very active in library, educational, and cultural activities in her Door County community and at the state level. Erickson’s past awards and honors include the 1984 Wisconsin Library Association (WLA) School Library Media Specialist of the Year; the 1986 Wisconsin Educational Media Association​ Special Service Recognition Award, and the 2000 WLA Trustee of the Year award.

​The official Wisconsin Library Hall of Fame induction will take place Thursday, November 3 at 7:00 p.m. at the Awards & Honors Ceremony held during the Wisconsin Library Association’s Annual Conference at the Grand Geneva Resort & Spa in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. For more information about Erickson and past Hall of Fame honorees, please visit heritage.wisconsinlibraries.org.

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Established in 2008, the Wisconsin Library Heritage Center (WLHC) is a program of the Wisconsin Library Association Foundation (WLAF). The Center was established to promote an understanding and appreciation of the history of libraries and librarianship in Wisconsin by the general public and the Wisconsin library community; the preservation of artifacts and archives which contribute to an understanding and appreciation of Wisconsin’s library heritage; and research and publishing which contribute to an understanding and appreciation of Wisconsin’s library heritage. The Wisconsin Library Association Foundation is a nonprofit organization with a mission to support the role of Wisconsin libraries as essential institutions in a democratic society and to help raise the visibility of Wisconsin libraries in the communities that they serve.