UA Professor Receives Esteemed Award from American Library Association

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. –Dr. Margaret Stieg Dalton, professor of library and information studies in The University of Alabama College of Communication and Information Sciences, recently received the Isadore Gilbert Mudge Award from the American Library Association.

This prize, given annually to “an individual who has made a distinguished contribution to reference librarianship,” was conferred at the Annual Meeting of the American Library Association in Anaheim, Calif.

In 35 years of teaching reference and information service courses, Dalton has influenced more than 2,000 librarians. Dalton’s publications in history, librarianship and scholarly communication are well known throughout the library and history communities.

She has been the recipient of more than a dozen prestigious awards, including the Award for Professional Contribution to Library and Information Science from the Association for Library and Information Science Education, the Burnham Distinguished Faculty Award from The University of Alabama and the Justin Windsor Prize from the American Library Association.

The prize is named for Isadore Gilbert Mudge, who served as a librarian at the University of Illinois, Bryn Mawr College and Columbia University. Mudge is credited with “virtually creating modern American academic and reference services.” Recipients of the Mudge prize include reference librarians, authors and editors, publishers, and library and information science educators.

The School of Library and Information Studies, housed in the College of Communication and Information Sciences, is Alabama’s only library education program accredited by the American Library Association, and the school offers both a Master of Library and Information Studies and a Master of Fine Arts in the book arts.