Jennifer C. Boettcher, Business Research Librarian, Georgetown University, selected winner of the 2023 Isadore Gilbert Mudge Award
“Jennifer C. Boetther is the recipient of the 2023 RUSA Isadore Gilbert Mudge Award in recognition of her outstanding contributions to reference librarianship, her leadership in ALA and RUSA, her many scholarly publications and presentations, her mentorship, and her national impact on business librarianship and government information.” – Award Committee statement
Jennifer has had a prolific career spanning 30 years. She is a nationally known business librarian who is well known for her books on government information and the economic census as well as her articles about NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) codes. She is a mentor to many in the profession and a committed and active member of ALA and RUSA.
Jennifer has received several awards including the BRASS Gale Cengage Award for Excellence in Business Librarianship in 2010, the RUSA BRASS Emerald Research Grant for Business Reference Research in 2013, and the Special Library Association’s Business and Finance Community Distinguished Member Award in 2022.
Jennifer has been involved with ALA for 30 years, serving numerous roles including chair of BRASS (2005-2006); member of the RUSA Board from 2012-2018, and ALA Councillor-at-Large, 2017-2022. She currently serves as chair of the BRASS 2023 Program Planning Committee and is active in the Special Libraries Association, the Academic Business Libraries Director group, and CABAL (Capital Area Business Academic Librarians), a group which she helped found.
Jennifer’s dedication to helping others led her to establish the Enterprise Academy for Business Research and the Business Intelligence Center portal. It also inspired her to teach business information classes at Catholic University’s School of Library and Information Science. She has published dozens of articles, in addition to book chapters and books, and has given more than 40 presentations at the national and local level.
The Isadore Gilbert Mudge Award selection committee was Chaired by Jason Coleman.
During her career, which started in 1903 and concluded in 1941, Isadore Gilbert Mudge increased student independence in research and improved reference collections with several specific types of sources, including dictionaries, encyclopedias, and atlases, among others. A pioneer in reference librarianship, she coined the phrase “material, mind, and method” to describe her reference philosophy when she began teaching the class “Bibliography and Bibliographic Methods” as an associate professor at Columbia’s School of Library Services.
Sponsored by EBSCO, the award consists of $5,000 and a citation to an individual (or individuals) that has made a distinguished contribution to reference librarianship.