Electra Collins Doren was a library pioneer, and her legacy lives on through her eponymous branch library on Troy Street, the oldest in the system that’s still in operation.
The Electra C. Doren (also known as the E. C. Doren Branch) opened in 1928. It was not, however, the first neighborhood branch in the system, as that honor goes to the two Dayton Carnegies libraries established in 1912. (The west side branch burned down decades ago while the east side building still stands and is currently occupied by the St. Mary Development Corporation.)
A Brief Biography of Electra C. Doren
Doren was born in 1861 in Georgetown, Ohio and got her education at the Cooper Female Seminary in Dayton, later attending library school in Albany, New York.
She began her career with the Dayton Public Library in 1879 at the age of 18.
Doren worked her way up to Chief Librarian in 1896 and quickly embarked on several major initiatives.
Under Doren’s leadership the library completed a major reorganization which culminated in opening the bookstacks to the public for the first time (closed stacks were more common in those years).
Doren also started a school library department and a library training school which was only the second of its kind in the United States.
She also launched the library’s book wagon program, the first in the country, which brought books to rural areas around Dayton.
She donated her own extensive collections of women’s suffrage materials to the library, and its Women’s Suffrage Collection is the largest on the topic in the United States.
Doren and the Library After the Great Flood
In 1905, Doren moved on from Dayton to become the first director of the library school at Western Reserve University.
A crisis necessitated her return after only 8 years, however, as Doren came back to Dayton to lead the library in its recovery from the Great Dayton Flood of 1913.
She spearheaded efforts to salvage books and other items and clean away debris. Despite suffering major damage, the library reopened just three months later.
Doren served as Chief Librarian until her death in 1927. She is honored on the Dayton Walk of Fame and has also been inducted into the Ohio Women’s Hall of Fame.
The Electra C. Doren library on Troy Street was renovated in 2014 as part of the system’s Libraries for a Smarter Future plan. It continues to serve patrons in the heart of historic Old North Dayton.
Sources
Historic images are courtesy of Dayton Metro Library
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