Marie-Louise Ayres

Marie-Louise Ayres is a librarian whose work has centered on providing digital access to cultural resources throughout Australia. Since 2017 she has been the Director-General of the National Library of Australia.

Marie-Louise Ayres
Born	1963 (1963) Perth, Western Australia
Nationality	Australian
Education	University of New England Australian National University
Occupation(s)	Director-General of the National Library of Australia (2017-present)

Early life and education

Marie-Louise Ayres was born in 1963 in Perth, Western Australia, and moved with her family to Canberra in 1967.^[1][2] She attended St Clare's College and Stirling College.^[2]

Ayres earned her bachelor degree from the University of New England.^[3] She received a doctorate in 1994 from the Australian National University, writing her thesis on Australian women poets Dorothy Auchterlonie Green, Rosemary Dobson, Dorothy Hewett, and J. S. Harry.^[1]

Library career

In 1994 she became the curator of the Australian Defence Force Academy's collection of Australian literary manuscripts.^[1] Ayres worked there for eight years; her time there included the development of AustLit, a clearinghouse for information about Australia's literary and print-culture history.^[3][1]

Ayres began working at the National Library of Australia in 2002 as a project manager for Music Australia, a discovery service for access to music resources.^[3] She became curator of the library's manuscript division in 2006 and became head of the resource sharing division in 2011.^[3] Her position as the Assistant Director-General included managing Trove, a search engine which aggregates resources from cultural institutions across Australia.^[1][3]

In March 2017 Ayres succeeded Anne-Marie Schwirtlich as Director-General of the National Library of Australia, being appointed for a five-year term.^[3][4]

Her work continues to focus on providing access to the cultural history of Australia and addressing the challenges of preserving born-digital content.^[5]

Believing in the importance of the legal deposit system as a way to capture the country's identity, Ayres has presided over the building phase and launch of NED, the National edeposit service whereby publishers submit their digital publications directly via a website to fulfill their legal deposit obligations.^[6] The nationwide service went live on 30 May 2019,^[7][8] and was formally launched by the Arts Minister Paul Fletcher, on 16 August 2019.^[7][9][10]

References

1. "Marie-Louise Ayres". AustLit. The University of Queensland. Retrieved 25 December 2019.
2. Kent, Gary (Winter 2017). "Introducing Dr Marie-Louise Ayres" (PDF). Friends. Friends of the National Library of Australia. Retrieved 25 December 2019.
3. "Introducing Dr Marie-Louise Ayres". CDNLAO Newsletter. No. 89. Conference of Directors of National Libraries in Asia and Oceania. August 2017. Retrieved 25 December 2019.
4. "New Director-General appointed". National Library of Australia. 7 June 2019. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
5. Easton, Stephen (24 June 2019). "Australia's top librarian tells how the National Library fosters a culture of in-house innovation. In two words: 'radical incrementalism'". The Mandarin. Retrieved 25 December 2019.
6. Smoleniec, Bethan (13 August 2019). Preserving Australia's publications for the digital future (audio). SBS Radio. Event occurs at 0:30. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
7. "National edeposit (NED)". National and State Libraries Australia. 30 May 2019. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
8. "Australian Libraries Join Forces to Build National Digital Collection". National Library of Australia. 12 August 2019. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
9. "National e-deposit service launched this week". Books + Publishing. 14 August 2019. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
10. "Australian libraries join forces to build national digital collection". Access: Asia’s Newspaper on Electronic Information Products & Services. 22 August 2019. Retrieved 5 May 2020.