Julie Renee Moore, the Special Collections catalog librarian in Fresno State’s Henry Madden Library, has been named the 2020 recipient of the Margaret Mann Citation Award — the nation’s highest award for catalogers.

The award recognizes outstanding professional achievement in cataloging or classification in any of the following areas: notable publications, outstanding contributions to professional cataloging associations, outstanding contribution to the technical improvement of cataloging and classification or outstanding contributions in the area of teaching cataloging and classification.  In his nomination of Moore, former American Library Association president Michael Gorman wrote that though recipients only had to meet one of the criteria for the citation, she met all four.

The Margaret Mann Citation is sponsored by the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services, a division of the American Library Association. The award will be presented on June 27 at the American Library Association Annual Conference and Exhibition in Chicago. Gorman, a former dean of the Madden Library (1988-2007), will be in attendance.

“I am incredibly humbled and honored by this,” Moore said. “This is an important award, the highest national honor for cataloging librarianship. I know that this is a very competitive award, and that there are many excellent and deserving catalogers out there. I am absolutely thrilled beyond words. This is definitely the crowning jewel of my career.”

The award includes a $2,000 donation in the recipient’s honor by OCLC, Inc. to the library school of the winner’s choice. Moore has chosen her alma mater, the University of South Florida, for its master’s program in library and information science. She requested that the money be used for a scholarship for a promising and deserving student. Moore is the first University of South Florida graduate to receive this award.

Moore has been a dedicated cataloger for more than 30 years and has wide experience in applying cataloging and classification standards to a variety of library materials during a period of unprecedented change in those standards, the nature of cataloging work and systems that use catalog data. Through all those changes, she has sought to keep up to date and maintain high standards. Throughout her career, she has contributed to the practice and teaching of cataloguing across the country through her instruction, publications, leadership and mentorship.

Moore’s written articles and workshops pertaining to cataloging standards, particularly on Resource Description and Access, contributed to the development of best practices for cataloging audiovisual and special formats material. A nationally-recognized expert in the field, Moore has actively participated in national policy discussions.

Moore also initiated a discussion in 2019 with the CSU-wide Unified Library Management System’s Resource Management Functional Committee to change the “illegal aliens” subject heading used as the standardized heading in libraries globally. Although the term has not changed officially on a national level, the 23-campus ULMS and the CSU Council of Library Directors made the decision to change it within the CSU shared library catalog system.

Moore has worked as a catalog librarian at Fresno State since 2005.