static library v.s. import library on Windows platform
Import library will add a DLL dependency to your program. Your program won't start, if you don't have the DLL. (You may use Dependency Walker to get the names of the DLL's of your program depend on).
Afaik Static libraries do not have dependencies. They linked into the program, only linker errors will tell you if that particular library depends on another lib. (At least in GCC, I don't know want is the behaviors of the MS tools.)
Given only a wtf.lib file, the question is to determine wither this library file is a static library or an import library. The current way I do this is (via a combination of DOS prompt and a cygwin bash shell).
In DOS prompt needed to correctly run dumpbin.exe:
dumpbin -all wtf.lib > wtf.lib.txt
Then, in cygwin shell:
grep 'Archive member name' wtf.lib.txt
If the output of grep spits out a DLL filename, then wtf.lib is an import library. Else, it is a stand-alone static library.