 In 1911 Mudge was hired at Columbia University.The President of Columbia, Nicholas Murray Butler, became one of her earliest supporters.Butler found her “incredibly resourceful in meeting his varied reference and bibliographic needs.” She began to push for all libraries to have a reference section that would include at least “the possession of certain basic works, a dictionary, an encyclopedia, an atlas, a biographical dictionary” but hopefully would also include “a book of quotations, handbook of statistics, a state or government manual”.