Harrison Bryan

Harrison Bryan (23 September 1923 – 12 February 2008) was an Australian librarian. He was University Librarian at the University of Queensland and University of Sydney and later Director-General of the National Library of Australia.

Early life Harrison Bryan was born in Brisbane, Queensland, the son of Walter Heywood Bryan and his wife, Myee. He attended Brisbane Grammar School. After enrolling at the University of Queensland in 1941, he joined the Army during WW2, and worked on his B.A via correspondence. He would return to study in 1946 and took Honours in history in 1947. He would later take his M.A. in history in 1954. He married his wife Florence Jolly in 1948. Despite the intention of pursuing a career in journalism or teaching, he was encouraged to consider the new field of library science. After completing the one-year course of the Public Library of New South Wales (now State Library of NSW), the only library science course then available in Australia in 1949, Bryan returned to Brisbane. Previous staff were either part time, or were doing double duty in some other role within the new University. In 1949, UQ was seeking an Assistant to the Librarian, despite there being no Librarian at all. Bryan took the job, and the position changed to an official University Librarian position a year later. The University of Queensland was undergoing a significant period of transition as it moved from its original location in George St, Brisbane, to its new location at St Lucia. Only a handful of buildings had been constructed by 1950, and the new site had been occupied by the Army during WW2. The collection was small, and most departments maintained their own smaller libraries to support their research needs. Over the next 13 years, Bryan would work steadily to increase the size of the collection, improve funding, and hire new staff. He had worked as a volunteer library staff member during his undergraduate days.

Bryan believed that the library's staff, especially the librarians, needed to have experience in research in order to have the respect of the academics on staff.

In 1984 he was appointed Officer of the Order of Australia. He would go on to receive honorary doctorates from three universities - Monash, Queensland and Sydney.

Legacy Bryan died in 2008. He was survived by his wife, four children, six grandchildren and one great-grandchild.