Dix, William S.

William S. Dix served as Princeton's University Librarian from 1953 until his retirement in 1975, at which time he was named Librarian Emeritus. Despite the demands of directing one of the nation's leading research libraries for over 20 years, Dix remained an active figure in the world of libraries up until his death in 1978.

Born in 1910 in Winchester, VA, William S. Dix received Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the University of Virginia, and in 1946, a PhD in American literature from the University of Chicago. Prior to his appointment as Princeton's University Librarian in 1953, he had been a professor and librarian at the Rice Institute (now known as Rice University).

William S. Dix's dedication to his field was manifested in the astounding number of professional activities in which he took part outside of his position at Princeton. Dix was a lifetime member of the American Library Association, serving as chairman of the Intellectual Freedom Committee (1951-1953), chairman of the International Relations Committee (1955-1960), First Vice-President (1968), and President-Elect (1969). Dix's commitment to the Association of Research Libraries was equally weighty, including terms as Executive Secretary (1957-1959) and President (1962-1963). Dix was also chairman of the Association of Research Libraries' Shared Cataloging Committee, where he was instrumental in shaping the Library of Congress' international program of centralized cataloguing, going so far as to testify before congressional committees in 1965 and 1967 on the benefits of such a program.

William S. Dix's involvement in library affairs was not limited by national borders. From 1955 to 1961 he was a member of the United States National Commission for the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and during this time he acted as a delegate to a number of international library conferences. Later, in 1967-1969, Dix was called upon by Secretary of State Dean Rusk to serve on the U.S. State Department's Advisory Committee on International Book and Library Programs.

As Princeton's University Librarian, Dix was often called upon as a consultant by other institutions and organizations. Among those to whom Dix acted as an advisor were Rutgers Library School, Duke University Library, Harvard University Library, the New Jersey Library Association, and the Academic Freedom Committee of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Dix died in 1978 while still a member of the Library of Congress' National Commission on New Technological Uses of Copyrighted Works (CONTU), a forward thinking organization whose mission was to explore the impact of photocopying, software, and electronic access upon copyrighted works. The CONTU final report, published shortly after Dix's death, became the basis for section 117 of the United States Copyright Act governing computer programs and software.