Kay Ann Cassell Named Recipient of the Isadore Gilbert Mudge Award
Professor Emerita Kay Ann Cassell will accept the award on Saturday, June 22 at ALA’s Annual Conference in Washington, D.C.
Professor Emerita Kay Ann Cassell has been awarded the 2019 Isadore Gilbert Mudge Award. The award is the Reference and User Services Association’s highest honor, and it “recognizes an individual who has made a distinguished contribution to reference librarianship.” RUSA is a division of the American Library Association.
“I am honored to receive the Mudge award for my contribution to reference service,” Cassell said. “I value the work of all reference librarians who day in and day out to provide current, accurate information to their users.”
Cassell will receive the award on Saturday, June 22, 2019 at the ALA Annual Conference in Washington, D.C.
Professor and Chair of SC&I’s Library and Information Science Department, Marie L. Radford, who won the Mudge Award in 2010 said, “Professor Cassell is co-author of the leading textbook on reference, “Reference and Information Services” (2018, ALA Editions), now in its 4th edition. She has had a stellar career as a reference librarian, editor, and educator. A former director of our Master of Information (MI/MLIS) program, Professor Cassell continues to teach courses in Grant Writing, Collection Development, Reference Services, and Government Information.”
This summer Cassell and Radford will co-teach a nine-day course in England titled “British Collections and Archives.”
Cassell is a former president of RUSA and has also spent a decade on the ALA Council. She was also an active member of both the New Jersey Library Association and the New York Library Association. In 2011 she was awarded the Career Achievement Award by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Women and Gender Studies Section (WGSS), and in 1986 she received the ALA Equity Award.
Before joining the SC&I faculty, Cassell held the position of associate director for collections and services for the New York Public Library Branch Libraries from 1989 to 2006. During that time she also taught at the Pratt Institute as an adjunct professor.
Cassell has also held director positions at the New School for Social Research Library, the Huntington (NY) Public Library, and the Bethlehem (NY) Public Library.
For more information about the Library and Information Science Department at the Rutgers School of Communication and Information, click here.