Doris E. Lewis

Doris Eileen Lewis (née Pringle) was a Canadian librarian who served as the first University Librarian at the University of Waterloo. She graduated from the University of Toronto (U of T) in 1933 and received a diploma in library sciences the following year. As a student at the U of T Lewis as vice-president of her class and a member of the Acta Victoriana Board. In 1963 Lewis completed a bachelor of library science, once again from the U of T.

Career Lewis started her career in libraries at the U of T working in the circulation department from 1934 to 1936. After marrying and starting a family, she returned to professional life.

Interested in the lives of women, Lewis played an instrumental role in the acquisition of the Lady Aberdeen Library on the History of Women, donated to the University of Waterloo Library by the National Council of Women of Canada in 1967. The library had been amassed by the group between 1954 and 1965 as a Canadian Centennial project. Lewis also played a key role in the design of the Dana Porter Library preparing the briefing reports that would inform its construction. Post-retirement, Lewis worked as consultant to the book-dealer B. H. Blackwell Ltd, Oxford. The following year she assisted with the preparation of briefs for the Commission to Study the Development of Graduate Programmes in Ontario Universities (Spinks Commission). Lewis died on May 23, 1985.