2003 CBHL Charles Robert Long Award of Extraordinary Merit to Ruth Schallert

Ruth F. Schallert, Botany/Horticulture Branch Librarian, Smithsonian Institution Libraries, Washington, DC received the 2003 Charles Robert Long Award of Merit presented Friday, June 13, at the New York Botanical Garden, LuEsther T. Mertz Library, Bronx, New York.

Ms. Schallert received the CBHL Award in honor of her professional library service since 1966 in the U.S. Natural History Museum at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, as well as in recognition of her many collaborative activities with members of the American Library Association (ALA), the Special Libraries Association (SLA), the Society for the History of Natural History, the European Botanical and Horticultural Libraries Group (EBHL), and the Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries, Inc. (CBHL).

Before 1966, when Ms. Schallert became botany librarian, the staff botanists at the Smithsonian Institution looked after the botany library collections themselves. Botanists organized the collection, sorted duplicates, built shelving, and integrated literature donations.

The presentation of the 2003 Charles Robert Long Award to Ruth Schallert (2^nd from right) was by Marie Long (right), widow of Charles Robert Long and librarian at the LuEsther T. Mertz Library of the New York Botanical Garden. Also present were Barbara Pitschel (2^nd from left), 2003 CBHL president, and Jane Cole (left), Chair of the Award Committee.

		Awardees    2005 Awardee    <<<2003 Awardee    2002 Awardee
		Administration of the award
		Frequency
		Nature of the award
		Submission
	See also: Charles Robert Long Award Committee

Senior Smithsonian botanist Dan Nicolson recalls, in a May 2003 note to CBHL members, "I did all the shelving and organized a trade or two … [but] When I went off to collect [plants] in Nepal for a year as a senior Fulbright fellow in August 1966, [the department] decided we needed a librarian badly enough that Chairman Bill Stern gave up a botany staff position to the library to hire Ruth Schallert -- our first and only librarian. " She is still there.

Ms. Schallert receives the Charles Robert Long Award of Merit as one of only ten awardees in the last sixteen years. The honor goes to librarians and others who the members of CBHL believe have made outstanding contributions and given meritorious service to CBHL or who are making outstanding contributions and giving meritorious service to the field of botanical and horticultural libraries or literature. It is a great honor. The award was established in 1987 in recognition of the contributions of Charles Robert Long, Director of the Library at the New York Botanical Garden who died in 1986. Today, his widow, Marie Long, is a member of CBHL and a reference librarian in the new LuEsther T. Mertz Library at the New York Botanical Garden.

The 2003 awardee, Ruth Schallert, grew up in Wisconsin and received her bachelor's degree at Luther College, Decorah, Iowa. After obtaining her library degree at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, she took a position at the Art Library, University of Iowa, Iowa City. Her next two library positions were with the Pacific Salmon Investigations library of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services in Seattle, Washington and with the Naval Oceanographic Office library in Washington, DC. Finally, after a brief period at the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History Entomology Branch library, in 1966 she became the Smithsonian Botany Branch librarian and in March 2003 the Smithsonian's Botany/Horticulture Branch Librarian.

Ms. Schallert's publications include two articles in professional journals: Churgin, Sylvia and Ruth F. Schallert. "History of the Smithsonian Libraries, with special emphasis on natural history." Journal of the Society of the Bibliography of Natural History (1980) 9(4): 593-606; and James J. White and Ruth F. Schallert, "Illustrations in the Contributions from the U.S. National Herbarium, 1890-1974." Huntia (1986) 6(2). She is a past-president of CBHL and was instrumental in designing the original bylaws for this Council.

Some of Ms. Schallert's honors include an alumni award in 2002 by Luther College and the naming of a new plant species in 1982 by Christine Burton, Hoya schallertiae, in recognition of the library research assistance Ruth gave her, which was "far beyond the call of duty."

The Charles Robert Long Award of Merit Ms. Schallert received includes a framed certificate, a monetary award, and lifetime membership in CBHL. The Award gives well-deserved recognition to Ms. Schallert and to the Smithsonian Institution for meritorious service celebrated by her fellow botany and horticulture librarians who met during their June conference in New York City.

Top of the page

Back to Charles Robert Long Award Presentation Page
History of the Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries