I met Brian Campbell in 2004 when I was working as his administrative assistant at Vancouver Public Library. When I left VPL to go to library school Brian agreed to be my mentor. Annette DeFaveri partly joked that I was Brian’s first grad student, and that was true—I...
BCLA Perspectives
Issue 1
‘He knew everyone doing anything interesting in the library world and in many other circles of activity’
When I think of Brian Campbell, I see a whirlwind of energy and determination. I first met him through an exchange of letters after he posted a brief notice in the Canadian Library Association’s newsletter, Feliciter, sometime in the late 1980s. He asked librarians to...
‘I quickly discovered, and admired, his consistent willingness to speak truth to power’
I first met Brian Campbell in 2001 in his office at Vancouver Public Library. Then a manager at the Vancouver Island Regional Library, I knew Brian mostly through glimpses of his legendary contributions to BCLA's Annual General Meetings. That first meeting had...
‘Brian has both led and showed us how to take public leadership on public policy and intellectual freedom issues’
Brian Campbell was a long-time friend, neighbour, and colleague. Despite our many hours of BCLA committee meetings, my favourite memories of Brian are of being in the neighbourhood as we watched our kids grow up. In earlier years, we often took the same bus downtown...
‘Brian was a leader in promoting free and equal access to information both inside and outside the library’
In 1992, a group of librarians and other community activists in British Columbia’s Lower Mainland started meeting to talk about the internet and the importance of it being accessible to everyone. Brian Campbell was the instigator of the group—he recognized early on...