Kruger Receives UWs Milstead Distinguished Librarianship Award

David Kruger, a librarian in the University of Wyoming Libraries, is the recipient of UW’s 2018 Agnes Milstead Distinguished Librarianship Award.

The late Agnes Milstead, a former professor of education and library science at UW, established the annual award in 1993 to recognize significant contributions to UW Libraries in scholarship, program development, teaching, fundraising and professional achievements.

Kruger has worked in a variety of roles in UW Libraries. He served as head of the Science Library before its collections and personnel were merged into Coe Library. He was special projects librarian for the UW Libraries administrative office during the renovation of the Library Annex and Coe Library.

Currently, he is the liaison librarian for the UW College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. He worked with the college to write a book to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the Wyoming Agricultural Experiment Station (WAES), “125 Years of Wyoming Agricultural Experiment Station: 1891-2016.” The book covers more than 20 unique experiment farms across 17 Wyoming towns, with 17 directors connecting WAES’s past to its present. As part of the anniversary celebration activities, he gave presentations around the state.

Additionally, he collaborated with librarians in Special Collections and Digital Collections to bring artifacts from the former wool laboratory into UW Libraries.

“David is an engaging speaker, and a supportive and wise mentor and colleague,” says Deborah McCarthy, interim associate dean of UW Libraries. “He spends time on instruction, as well as research and increasing the recognition of UW librarians as scholars.”

Kruger’s latest book explores how James Cash Penney, the department store icon who opened his first store in Kemmerer, and his company shaped rural America throughout the 20th century. “J.C. Penney: The Man, the Store, and American Agriculture” received positive reviews in the Wall Street Journal, Successful Farming and The Annals of Iowa. 

One of Kruger’s nominators wrote, “David’s recent book combines two of his major interests, Mr. Penney and agriculture, and he delivers a very enjoyable book that appeals to a very wide variety of audiences.”

Kruger earned an M.A. (1998) in library and information science from the University of Missouri-Columbia; an M.A. (1996) in English from Kansas State University; a B.S. Ed. (1994) in English from Minot State University; and a B.S. (1991) in journalism from South Dakota State University.