Our Story

2006 – PRESENT

FY 2006-2011

In its first year as a non-profit, CTLS moved from the Ed Bluestein Boulevard location to 1005 West 41st Street. In the transition to a non-profit, most staff members, who had many years in the City of Austin retirement system, opted to stay with Austin PL. The CTLS Executive Director hired new staff to replace those and the total staff was 8. CTLS continued to add members within its 30-county territory and had 80 member libraries at the end of FY 2012.

FY 2012

The Texas State Library and Archives Commission had a very bad budget year, losing over 60% of their state funding. The state librarian decided that systems were no longer affordable. With CTLS facing a loss of all their funding, the membership and Board decided that asking members to pay a membership fee was the best approach. The Tocker Foundation also helped financially, assuring the continuation of the system. Meanwhile, 8 of the other  9 system offices closed, and the one remaining non-profit system, the North Texas Regional Library System, closed at the beginning of FY 2013..

FY 2013

The CTLS staff continued working as usual, helping member libraries and applying for competitive grants from the state library. Because of such a financial blow, the office moved again to more modest quarters at 5555 North Lamar Boulevard, renting 2 non-adjacent offices in Building L. The staff shrank to 4 people.

FY 2014

In March 2014, longtime CTLS Executive Director Pat Tuohy retired after 32 years with CTLS and Deputy Director Laurie Mahaffey was named to succeed her. Membership growth continued rapidly as CTLS filled the void left by the closure of the Texas library systems.

FY 2015-2017

In May 2017, the Tocker Foundation offered CTLS office space in their new office overlooking the Bright Leaf Preserve at Mesa Drive and RR 2222. The CTLS staff, now just 2.5 people, moved to the most beautiful office the system had ever occupied. State library competitive grants helped fund special projects, and grants from both the Trull and the Still Water Foundations were also useful.

FY 2018-2020

After several years of competitive grants, the state library instituted a Grants Academy for a selected group of small libraries. While CTLS was glad that the library directors in small communities were getting better training in applying for grants, this meant that CTLS was no longer eligible for TSLAC grants.  CTLS Executive Director Laurie Mahaffey announced her retirement effective the end of August 2020. She was the last “legacy” employee who started with CTLS when it was a part of the Austin Public Library. Her 29-year tenure with CTLS was second only to Pat Tuohy’s. Membership was at 208 libraries in 109 counties, a slight drop from 214 the previous  year.

FY 2021 - present

After an extensive search, former Georgetown Public Library Director Eric Lashley stepped into the role as Executive Director.  Eric had been part of the CTLS board when they transitioned to a nonprofit organization and was very familiar with the organization and the members.  His passion for the work of the library systems and CTLS was evident from his first interview.  He realized that many libraries from around the state did not realize that CTLS now was a statewide organization.  He and the board worked to rebrand CTLS to PLAN - Partners Library Action Network.  The mission remained the same - to support public libraries in Texas with resources, expertise and training opportunities.  The new look was launched in Fall 2021 with a new logo, website and a renewed focus on library services.

Eric envisioned a larger role for PLAN with an IMLS/TSLAC grant for a library rescue program.  With this grant, PLAN partnered with libraries to envision "makeovers" for small libraries - with a team of volunteer library experts to swoop in and transform the library - to re-envision their collection, facility or policies.  Before and after stories were collected and shared, and the communities were transformed.

Eric Lashley served for two years until his move to Paso Robles, California as their new Library Director.  Another extensive search brought Margaret Louanne Noel, the former Director of the Boyce Ditto Public Library in Mineral Wells, to PLAN leadership.

Under Louanne's leadership, an additional IMLS/TSLAC grant for Library Training was obtained and programs such as the multipart Library Leadership training was implemented.  In 2025, this program had almost 70 participants.  Louanne left PLAN in February, 2025 to pursue other opportunities.

Currently, Interim Executive Director Gretchen Pruett, former Library Director of New Braunfels Public Library, is heading a search for the next PLAN leader.