Dr Ayris has been Director of UCL Library Services since 1997. He is also the UCL Copyright Officer.
He is a member of the LIBER (Ligue Internationale des Bibliothèques Européennes de Recherche) and SPARC Europe Boards.
He has a Ph.D. in Ecclesiastical History and publishes on English Reformation Studies.
He chairs LIBER's Access Division, and the OAI Organizing Committee for the Cern Workshops on Scholarly Communication. He also chairs the UK's SHERPA Management Group and the JISC's NHS-HE Content Procurement Group. He is Deputy Chair of the JISC's Repositories and Preservation Advisory Group. He is a member of the JISC's Journals Working Group, of SCONUL's Health Strategy Group and of the CURL/SCONUL Joint Scholarly Communications Group.