Lucile M. Morsch

Morsch began her career as a cataloger in the library of the University of Iowa as a student, where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree.{{cite journal |last1=Morsch |first1=Lucile M. |title=The division of cataloging and classification |journal=ALA Bulletin |date=March 1945 |volume=39 |issue=3 |pages=81–84 |publisher=American Library Association|jstor=25692048 }} She went on to receive B.S. and M.S. degrees in Library Science from the Columbia University School of Library Service, in 1929 and 1930 respectively, serving two years as the Lydia Roberts Fellow. She returned to work at the University of Iowa for five years before taking a position as chief classifier at the Enoch Pratt Free Library.{{cite journal |title=Iowa Library Quarterly |journal=Bulletin of the Iowa Library Commission |date=1932 |volume=11 |page=144 |publisher=Iowa Library Commission}}

Morsch joined the Library of Congress in 1940, becoming the first chief of the new Descriptive Cataloging Division in 1940.{{cite book |last1=Carpenter |first1=Michael |title=Corporate authorship |date=1979 |publisher=University of California, Berkeley |location=Berkeley |page=64}} She served as chief of the Descriptive Cataloging Division from 1940 to 1950 and again from 1962 to 1965. In that role she was heavily involved in the development of standardized cataloging rules and cataloging code revision; she completed the first thorough revision of the Library's descriptive cataloging rules in 1949.{{cite book |title=Encyclopedia of the Library of Congress : for Congress, the nation & the world |date=2004 |publisher=Library of Congress in association with Bernan Press |isbn=978-0890599716 |page=196}}{{cite thesis |last=Bushin Jr. |first=O. Mell |date=1978 |title=A survey of the writings of the first fifteen women Presidents of the American Library Association |type=Master |publisher=Western Michigan University |url=https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses/2116 |access-date=10 February 2019}}{{rp|17}}

From 1953 to 1962, Morsch served as Deputy Chief Assistant Librarian of Congress from 1953 to 1962. In this role she was primarily concerned with the Library of Congress's relationships with other libraries and with scholarly and cultural institutions in the United States and abroad.{{rp|30}} She retired from the Library of Congress in 1965 after twenty-five years of service there.

Morsch was the first recipient of the Margaret Mann Citation from the American Library Association in 1951 for her leadership in creating the Rules for Descriptive Cataloging in the Library of Congress, which clarified and simplified cataloging rules for libraries.{{cite news|last1=Davis|first1=Annettee|title=U.S. Library of Congress Masterminds Gigantic Project|work=Tuscaloosa News|date=August 20, 1957|page=8}}{{rp|30}}

She served as president of the District of Columbia Library Association from 1954 to 1955.{{cite web |title=DCLA History: Past Presidents |url=https://www.dcla.org/past_presidents |website=District of Columbia Library Association |accessdate=10 February 2019}}

Her inaugural speech as president of the American Library Association on June 25, 1957 was titled "Promoting library interests throughout the world," emphasizing the importance of international relations.{{cite journal |last1=Morsch |first1=Lucille M. |title=Promoting library interests throughout the world |journal=ALA Bulletin |date=September 1957 |volume=51 |issue=8 |pages=579–584 |publisher=American Library Association|jstor=25695078 }}{{cite journal |last1=Sullivan |first1=Peggy |title=The International Relations Program of the American Library Association |journal=Library Trends |date=January 1972 |volume=20 |issue=3 |page=582}} That speech was regarded by at least one critic as anti-Communist in tone.{{cite book |last1=Karetzky |first1=Stephen |title=Not seeing red: American librarianship and the Soviet Union, 1917-1960 |date=2002 |publisher=University Press of America |location=Lanham, Maryland |isbn=978-0761821625 |page=325}}

Morsch served on a Civil Liberties Committee in 1960 to examine statements from the American Library Association regarding racial segregation in libraries and to formulate an official policy statement.{{cite book |last1=Robbins |first1=Louise S. |title=Censorship and the American library : the American Library Association's response to threats to intellectual freedom, 1939-1969 |date=1997 |publisher=Greenwood Press |location=Westport, Connecticut |isbn=978-0313296444 |page=110}} The Committee's policy statement took the form of an addition to ALA's Library Bill of Rights, asserting that the "rights of an individual to the use of a library should not be denied or abridged because of his race, religion, national origin or political views"; this statement was adopted by the organization in 1961 in a near-unanimous vote.{{cite book |last1=Graham |first1=Patterson Toby |title=A right to read : segregation and civil rights in Alabama's public libraries, 1900-1965 |url=https://archive.org/details/righttoreadsegre00grah |url-access=limited |date=2002 |publisher=University of Alabama Press |location=Tuscaloosa |isbn=978-0817311445 |page=[https://archive.org/details/righttoreadsegre00grah/page/n138 122]}}

In 1966 Morsch was awarded the Melvil Dewey Medal by the American Library Association, which recognizes "creative leadership of high order" in librarianship.{{cite web |title=Melvil Dewey Medal |url=http://www.ala.org/awardsgrants/awards/44/all_years |website=American Library Association |accessdate=10 February 2019}}

Morsch married Werner B. Ellinger in 1944.{{cite news|last1=Eads|first1=Jane|title=In Washington|work=Independent Record|publisher=(Newspapers.com)|date=June 30, 1953|location=Helena, Montana|page=4}} She had a small collection of postcards depicting libraries that had been mailed to her by colleagues; she donated her collection to librarian collector Norman Stevens before her death.{{cite book |last1=Stevens |first1=Norman D. |title=A Guide to Collecting Librariana |date=1986 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |location=Metuchen, New Jersey |isbn=978-0810818743 |page=116}} Morsch was found dead in her apartment in Washington, DC on July 3, 1972, after losing her husband just a few weeks earlier.{{cite journal|title=Library receives word of deaths of two distinguished librarians|journal=LC Information Bulletin|date=July 14, 1972|volume=31|issue=28|pages=314–315|url=http://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00008458/00025/2j|accessdate=15 February 2016|publisher=University of Florida Digital Collections}}

• [http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015030346228 Rules for Descriptive Cataloging in the Library of Congress], (Library of Congress, 1949)
• [https://www.jstor.org/stable/25695078 Promoting Library Interests throughout the World], Bulletin of the American Library Association, Vol. 51, No. 8 (September 1957), pp. 579–584

• Library of Congress

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{{s-bef|before=Ralph R. Shaw}}

{{s-ttl|title=President of the American Library Association|years=1957–1958}}

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{{ALA Presidents}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Morsch, Lucile}}

Category:1906 births

Category:1972 deaths

Category:American librarians

Category:American women librarians

Category:Presidents of the American Library Association

Category:Columbia University School of Library Service alumni

Category:Librarians at the Library of Congress

Category:Library cataloging and classification

Category:University of Iowa alumni