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• 1 2020-07-22T21:09:43+00:00 Eileen Thornton 3 plain 2020-07-22T21:15:34+00:00 Eileen Thornton (1909-1997) was a librarian. Thornton was born in Ireland and immigrated to the United States as a teenager. She became a citizen in 1924. She graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1931 with a Bachelor of Science degree. After graduating, Thornton worked as the senior assistant for the Hibbing Public Library in Minnesota from 1931 to 1932.  She became the general assistant in 1932 for the St. Louis Co. Poor Commission. Thornton left that position in 1933 when she was appointed as the circulation assistant for the University of Minnesota Library, a position she held until 1936. She became the seminar librarian in 1936 for that university and stayed in that position through 1938.
  
  Thornton began work as the librarian for the West Waterloo High School in Iowa in 1938 and held the position until 1939. She then returned to Minnesota and became the librarian for the State Teachers College in Bemidji. She was employed there until 1942 when she enrolled at the University of Chicago. While completing her Master of Arts degree from the University of Chicago Thornton also worked as the college librarian. She graduated in 1945 and was appointed as the college librarian at Vassar College that same year. Thornton stayed at Vassar until 1956 when she was employed as the librarian for the Oberlin College Library.
  
  Thornton was the first individual to hold that position at Oberlin College. While working at Oberlin College, Thornton was also the librarian for the Oberlin Public Library. As the librarian for Oberlin College, she helped plan for the new main library in the Mudd Center, for the Conservatory of Music Library, and for the Science Library. Thornton helped with the creation of the East Asian collection, helped transfer the paper catalog records to a computerized catalog system, and oversaw the creation of the Oberlin College Archives. She worked to expand the library’s public services, including the reference services.
  
  Thornton was a member of the American Library Association as well as the ALA’s Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) and the Library Administration Division. She was the president of the ACRL from 1957 to 1958. She also served as president of the Library Administration Division from 1967 to 1968. Thornton was the only woman and only college librarian to serve as a delegate at the first Japan-U.S. Conference on Libraries and Information Science in Higher Education, which was held in 1969. She retired in 1971. Thornton was awarded the distinguished service award from the ACRL in 1989.
  
  Sources:
  Staff File (Eileen Thornton), Alumni & Development Records, O.C.A.