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Marie-Louise Ayres

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Marie-Louise Ayres
Born1963 (1963)
Perth, Western Australia
Education
OrganizationNational Library of Australia
TitleDirector-General
Term2017-2026
PredecessorAnne-Marie Schwirtlich
SuccessorAlison Dellit

Marie-Louise Ayres is a librarian whose work has centered on providing digital access to cultural resources throughout Australia. She was the Director-General of the National Library of Australia from March 2017 to April 2026.

Early life and education

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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] She later wrote Dobson's obituary in 2012,[4] and her biographical entry in a book of Australian writers.[5]

Library career

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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][6]

Her work continues to focus on providing access to the cultural history of Australia and addressing the challenges of preserving born-digital content.[7]

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.[8] The nationwide service went live on 30 May 2019,[9][10] and was formally launched by the Arts Minister Paul Fletcher, on 16 August 2019.[9][11][12]

In 2025, Ayres announced her pending retirement,[13] confirmed as 8 April 2026.[14] Her successor, Alison Dellit, was announced in March 2026.[14]

Awards and recognition

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In 2020, Ayres was elected as an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. This was in recognition of her significant contribution to the humanities, the arts and Australian cultural life.[15]

Bibliography

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  • Ayres, Marie-Louise (1994). 'Me is not a stable reality' : negotiations of identity in the poetry of Dorothy Auchterlonie, Rosemary Dobson, Dorothy Hewett and J.S. Harry. ANU thesis.
  • Ayres, Marie-Louise (9 June 1994). "Women poets of Canberra". The Canberra Times. pp. 8, 11.
  • Ayres, Marie-Louise (June 2011). "A picture asks a thousand questions". The National Library Magazine. 3 (2): 8–11.

References

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  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Marie-Louise Ayres". AustLit. The University of Queensland. Retrieved 25 December 2019.
  2. 1 2 Kent, Gary (Winter 2017). "Introducing Dr Marie-Louise Ayres" (PDF). Friends. Friends of the National Library of Australia. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 December 2019. Retrieved 25 December 2019.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "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. ↑ Ayres, Marie-Louise (12 July 2012). "Well-versed prizewinner". The Canberra Times. p. 10.
  5. ↑ Samuels, Selina, ed. (2002). "Rosemary Dobson (1920-)". Australian writers, 1915-1950. Detroit: Gale Group. pp. 99–105. ISBN 0787660043.
  6. ↑ "New Director-General appointed". National Library of Australia. 7 June 2019. Archived from the original on 5 May 2020. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  7. ↑ 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.
  8. ↑ 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.
  9. 1 2 "National edeposit (NED)". National and State Libraries Australia. 30 May 2019. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  10. ↑ "Australian Libraries Join Forces to Build National Digital Collection". National Library of Australia. 12 August 2019. Archived from the original on 25 September 2020. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  11. ↑ "National e-deposit service launched this week". Books + Publishing. 14 August 2019. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  12. ↑ "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.
  13. ↑ Musa, Helen (6 August 2025). "Ayres to end her National Library chapter". Canberra CityNews. Retrieved 7 April 2026.
  14. 1 2 "New Director-General for the National Library of Australia | National Library of Australia (NLA)". www.library.gov.au. Retrieved 7 April 2026.
  15. ↑ "Our newly elected Fellows in 2020". Australian Academy of the Humanities. 24 November 2020. Retrieved 7 April 2026.
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