Jane Griffith Bryan, a university librarian focused on enhancing public services for over four decades, most recently as the Director of Libraries at Drexel University, died at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania on Monday from complications of amyloidosis. She was 65.

Ms. Bryan was born in Darby, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Birmingham, Michigan. She studied Italian at Wellesley College and in Florence during a junior year abroad, and married her husband, James Bryan, before their senior year of college. They spent the year after completing their undergraduate degrees in Avellino and Naples, where they both taught English, and then settled in Philadelphia in 1966.

Ms. Bryan earned her masters degree in library science at Drexel and began her career at the Free Library of Philadelphia. She soon joined the staff of the reference department at the University of Pennsylvania's Van Pelt Library, and then worked within the Penn Libraries for over thirty years to advance user-centered library services. Her husband recalls, "Seeing Jane working with a library user was to witness an unusual coming together of who a person is and what she does. She loved nothing more than helping people track down information they needed. This brought her great joy, which was always so apparent and infectious."

Following her retirement from the University of Pennsylvania in 2001, Ms. Bryan became Associate University Librarian at Princeton University, and then in 2005 returned to Philadelphia as Director of Libraries at Drexel.

In her work with so many dear colleagues and library users over the years, her children Thomas and Sophie recall, she brought her hallmark traits of curiosity, modesty, and caring for others.

In addition to her husband of forty-four years, Ms. Bryan is survived by her two children, both of Philadelphia, her sister, a niece and nephew, and several cousins.

A memorial service will be at 3 p.m. on January 31, 2009 in the Anthony J. Drexel Picture Gallery, 3142 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Amyloid Research Fund, 715 Albany Street, K503, Boston, MA 02118 or the Children's Defense Fund, 25 E Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20001.