Electra Collins Doren


Electra Collins Doren was a suffragette and library scientist who started the United States' first book wagon service.

Early life and education

Electra Collins Doren, often referred to as Electra C. Doren, was born on December 4, 1861 in Georgetown, Ohio, to John Gates and Elizabeth Doren. She graduated from the Cooper Female Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, and studied at the Library School of Albany, New York.

Career

Doren began work at the Dayton Metro Library, known at the time as the Dayton Public Library, in 1879. In 1897, she became the library system's director and instituted a number of new programs, including a school library department, a library training school and a reorganization that saw titles for the first time filed using the Dewey Decimal System. The institution of the Dewey Decimal System opened the library for public use for the first time and allowed for the country's first book wagon service, which took books to rural areas of the community.
Doren left Dayton in 1905 and became the first director of the Western Reserve University Library School. Following the Great Dayton Flood, she returned to Dayton as chief librarian until her death in 1927, where she aided library staff in recovering items damaged by the flood, allowing the library to reopen just three months after the flood waters receded. During her two terms as chief librarian, she expanded the collection from 36,000 books to 185,000 and increased the budget from $64,000 to $225,000.
During World War I, she was a member of the Committee of the American Library Association, where she chose books that soldiers at home and in active duty could read. Doren later founded the Ohio Library Association, serving for a year as its president, and was a vice president with the American Library Association.

Death and legacy

She died on March 4, 1927.
The Electra C. Doren branch library of the Dayton Metro Library system is named in her honor. The branch was renovated starting in 2014 as a result of a community support bond passed in 2012.
As a suffragette, Doren collected materials related to women's suffrage for her library work, which later formed the basis for the Dayton Metro Library's Women's Suffrage Collection, which hosts the largest collection of materials on the topic in the United States. For her efforts related to suffrage and libraries, she was inducted into the Ohio Women's Hall of Fame, the Ohio Library Hall of Fame and the Dayton Walk of Fame.

Writing