Eloise Morgan - "A Career in Books"

Written by Eloise Fry Morgan, May 1956, for "The Madeira Teacher, " a monthly published by Madeira Teachers Ass'n, Madeira Public Schools, Madeira, OH [a Cincinnati suburb]. She was working there as a librarian.

"A Career in Books" by Eloise Morgan

It is hard for me to say at just what point in my life something seemed to impel me toward the field of teaching. Suffice it to say that my chosen vocation turned out to be teaching, and I believe it was a natural instinct that pushed me further into my field of library work.

Always I have had a natural inclination for filing and for indexing various articles for my own personal benefit. I believe it was this realization plus my love for books that became the deciding factor and convinced me that I should be happy as a librarian.

After earning my teachers degree I was able to secure a scholarship in order to obtain the necessary education for a librarian position and my feeling for library work was greatly enhanced by the fact that already in my family there were two college librarians [her sister Irene and brother Alderson].

Aside from the forces which aided my choice of librarian as a profession I find that there is a deep satisfaction in helping to create the interest and urge to learn in students. I have often reflected about the amount of self-satisfaction that I have felt when a student returns a book that I have recommended, stating that he enjoyed it, or when another student finds the answer to his question in the reference source I have directed him to use.

It appears to me that compared to a teaching profession, which could readily dissolve itself into one subject matter and one line of books, the librarian, on the other hand, must continually be progressing and studying new material in all fields of education and entertainment.

I would certainly recommend the librarian profession for any student who is interested in research work or who has an inherent love for all books.

Eloise Fry Morgan was my husband's mother.