Eugène Morel was a French

French people

The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...

 librarian

Librarian

A librarian is an information professional trained in library and information science, which is the organization and management of information services or materials for those with information needs...

, writer

Writer

A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

 and literary critic. One of the founders of the Association of French Librarians, Morel contributed greatly to the development of French libraries and librarianship in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Biography

Morel graduated as a lawyer from the Faculté de Droit in Paris in 1869. After a brief literary career he became an assistant librarian at the Bibliothèque nationale

Bibliothèque nationale de France

The is the National Library of France, located in Paris. It is intended to be the repository of all that is published in France. The current president of the library is Bruno Racine.-History:...

 in 1892. He was elected president of the Association of French Librarians in 1918, which he helped to found in 1906.

Morel’s main contributions to the profession of librarianship include a redefining of the librarian’s role and career. He also predicted the development of libraries in his book La Librairie Publique. As a pilot project, he introduced the Dewey Decimal Classification

Dewey Decimal Classification

Dewey Decimal Classification, is a proprietary system of library classification developed by Melvil Dewey in 1876.It has been greatly modified and expanded through 23 major revisions, the most recent in 2011...

 System in 1911 to the Levallois-Perret

Levallois-Perret

Levallois-Perret is a commune in the northwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris.-Name:The name Levallois-Perret comes from two housing developments, Champerret and Village Levallois , and which resulted in the incorporation of the...

 Library. He also supported the development of L'Heure Joyeuse, the first public library for children in France, founded in Paris in 1923.

Further reading

• Seguin, Jean-Pierre (1994) Un prophète en son pays: Eugène Morel (1869-1934) et la lecture publique. Paris: Bibliotheque publique d'information, Centre Pompidou