By: Anna Blackman23rd Jul 2021 4:04PMWilliam John Harris was born in 1903 at Oamaru. He graduated with a BA (Hons) in 1929 from Oxford University. Harris also studied at the University of London School of Librarianship before taking up his appointment as University of Otago Librarian in 1935. He was an active and respected Librarian. In 1948 Harris became the first Librarian at the University College of Ibadan, Nigeria. He served as Deputy and Acting Vice Chancellor at Ibadan, and he was professor of library studies at the University of Ghana from 1968-1970. He then became Librarian at the University of Benin 1970-1974, as well as acting Vice-Chancellor for a period. John Harris married Bianca Cicely Marguerite (Rita) Darby in 1934. The marriage was dissolved in 1961. In 1965 he married librarian Anne Priscilla Taylor. After her death in 1974, Harris married Judith Baker in 1976. Harris retired to Melbourne and died there in 1980. (from 'Southern People: A Dictionary of Otago Southland Biography', ed. Jane Thomson, Dunedin, 1998)." His papers are held at the Hocken Collections at the University of Otago.