Steven (Steve) Cramer, business librarian, associate professor and Coleman Fellow for Entrepreneurship Education for University Libraries at UNC Greensboro has been awarded the 2020 BRASS Excellence in Business Librarianship by the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) division of the American Library Association (ALA).
Sponsored by Mergent by FTSE Russell, the BRASS Excellence in Business Librarianship Award was established in 1989 and offers $4,000 and a citation to a librarian that has distinguished themselves in the field of business librarianship. The selection of a recipient is accomplished through a review of written nominations by the BRASS Award for Excellence in Business Librarianship Committee.
“As a founding member of Business Librarians In North Carolina (BLINC), a section of the North Carolina Library Association (NCLA), Steve has tirelessly brought business librarians throughout the state of North Carolina together for quarterly workshops over the past decade with a dependable enthusiasm,” said Summer Krstevska, business and economics librarian at Wake Forest University. “He has also advocated for public and academic librarians within the statewide consortium of NCLive, to ensure topics related to the group’s interests are considered.”
As a Coleman Fellow for Entrepreneurship Education, Cramer teaches, inspires and mentors students at UNCG who are in non-business disciplines to gain self-employment skills and experience in entrepreneurial ventures.
“Steve champions the work of his colleagues,” said Nancy Lovas, entrepreneurship and business librarian at UNC Chapel Hill. “He makes a point of inviting earlier career librarians to collaborate on conference presentations at the local and national level.”
Cramer also authors his own blog, “Liaison Life” and advocates for business librarianship through his many scholarly articles, presentations, courses and books. As a mentor, teacher and thought leader in the field, Cramer’s dedication to librarianship has resulted in networking for librarians on a regional, state and national level.
“Steve is a wealth of information and help, and he exponentially increases my ability to answer the business reference needs of my community,” said Mimi Curlee, librarian at the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library.
Cramer holds a master’s degree in library and information science from UNC Chapel Hill and a bachelor of arts degree in medieval and renaissance studies from the University of Michigan. Prior to joining UNCG, he served as the digital services librarian and business specialist at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina and as a librarian at Davenport College (now University) of Business in Holland, Michigan.
