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(OBIT PAGE) A Librarian's Reserve Did Not Hide A Generous Intelligence

BY SUZANNA NYBERG

Newtown Librarian Jane Campbell passed away last week. Now people who listen

for her voice or wait for her advice will be disappointed. Each life touches

so many other lives that when it is no longer around it leaves an awful

vacancy.

Mrs Campbell's colleagues at the library are feeling that vacancy. The

impressions they retain in their memories are those of a private woman who

loved books. The idea of telling one's private life, one's woes or even one's

joys, was blasphemy to her, remembers Janet Woycik, the library's director.

Complaining and gossip were alien to Mrs Campbell, and for this reserve,

people had an instinctive respect. "Jane was a staunch New Englander," Mrs

Woycik said. "She held fast to principles." Time and experience, which alter

most things, did not alter Mrs Campbell's standards. Rules guided, not

constrained her, and she valued loyalty, duty, and honesty.

The New England nature rebels against change, but according to Mrs Woycik, Mrs

Campbell was adaptable. "She didn't particularly like the computer, but she

immediately signed up for extra training on the Internet," Mrs Woycik said.

Library assistant Maureen Armstrong worked with Mrs Campbell for many years.

Mrs Campbell's discussions of books, films, and television programs, Mrs

Armstrong said, were as good as anything she is likely to hear ever again.

"Her memory was phenomenal," she said. "Jane was a treasure-trove of

information."

A bibliophile, Mrs Campbell's literary range was wider than most others. Her

tastes were modern, Mrs Armstrong recalls, but she also drifted into the 19th

century and read shelves of the great British novelists. Jane Austen in

particular kindled her enthusiasm.

Beryl Harrison, the reference librarian, said that Mrs Campbell was the

reader's adviser. "She introduced patrons to new books and was able to answer

almost any question related to reading they had," she said. For Mrs Harrison,

it seemed as though there was not a book Mrs Campbell had not read.