 The only biography that exists of Isadore Gilbert Mudge is a dissertation written by Columbia student, John N. Waddell, in 1973.In one portion he sums up what were her ideals, “Mudge’s professional concerns were not confined to the Columbia reference department….She was constantly concerned with the problems and tools bibliographical control in the widest possible area….but herself preached the gospel of cooperative bibliographic at home and abroad, by pen and by tongue.”

Isadore Gilbert Mudge was raised in Brooklyn, New York, as the oldest child in her family.Her father was an attorney and her mother was the daughter of a University of Michigan librarian.