Tyrone Bryant, assistant director for special services for the Broward County library system and the force behind the Library-in-Action program in disadvantaged neighborhoods, died on Thursday after a three-year battle with cancer. He was 45.

“He was a champion who fought for the rights of those ignored by libraries,” said Eric Rawlins, a longtime friend and co-worker. “He saw what needed to be done, and he went about doing what he needed to do. He was very creative.”

“His idea to young blacks was that the greatest sin was ignorance,” said Cecil Beach, director of the county library system.

Mr. Bryant, born and raised in New York City, earned a bachelor’s degree in art and a master’s degree in education at Florida A&M; University in Tallahassee.

At age 22, he was elected director of the innovative Langston Hughes Cultural Center and Library in Corona, N.Y. The library complex was named after the black poet Langston Hughes and served the needs of inner-city residents.

In 1976, Broward County received $25,000 to plan for library construction in disadvantaged areas, and Sam Morrison, then deputy library system director, hired Mr. Bryant to bring the Hughes concept to Broward.

That the disadvantaged not only needed but wanted tailor-made special- service libraries was a major concern of Mr. Bryant’s. In 1982, he bristled after hearing that the Library-in-Action program was inferior to other Broward libraries and shot back: “This is not a jive, anti-poverty pimp program.”

Two years earlier, Mr. Bryant, angry over vandalism at a branch, said: “If this library doesn’t work in Collier City, nothing will work. The people have to be responsible for their community and organize and let the people on the street know this garbage has to stop.”

Darro Willey, deputy director of the county library system, remembers several years ago when residents argued for badly needed sewer and water lines and against a library in their community.

Undaunted, Mr. Bryant asked: “When’s the last time you were thirsty?” Then he said, “Your children are dying from the lack of knowledge.”

The library was built, and eventually LIbrary-In-Action branches were in Collier City, Carver Ranches, Rock Island, Dania and at the Von D. Mizell Multi-Purpose Center in Fort Lauderdale.

“I think that is (his) accomplishment,” Beach said of Mr. Bryant. Several of the libraries, Beach explained, were built with community development money and the residents had to be persuaded to vote on the use of the federal money.

Mr. Bryant did the persuading although he “didn’t have much tolerance for bureaucracy and red tape,” Beach said.

Added Morrison, now chief librarian for Chicago: “He was outspoken, had a mind of his own. He stood up for what he believed in and you could always depend on him to tell you what should be done and how it should be done.”

As much an innovator as a defender, Mr. Bryant added the Homework Assistance Program for schoolchildren, a literacy program that has since graduated more than 200 people, bookmobile and books-by-mail projects, and a Hughes Library legacy — a Footmobile service where Bryant and his staff went door-to-door promoting the library and delivering books. Black heritage exhibits were also added.

Mr. Bryant, a Lauderhill resident, was also chairman from 1983 until his death of the Sistrunk Historical Festival, an annual tribute to the county’s black pioneers. The festival has since grown from a one-day street festival to a monthlong event that draws more than 100,000 people.

The festival also provided a romantic setting. Five years ago, Mr. Bryant met Claudia Wright at the Sistrunk Festival. They married two years ago.

Officials of the Fort Lauderdale branch of the NAACP are planning a tribute for Mr. Bryant. Also, Rawlins said, the library system plans to establish a scholarship in Mr. Bryant’s honor.

“We owe him a lot,” Willey said.

Survivors include Mr. Bryant’s wife; his mother, Alberta Bryant; a brother, Elmer Bryant; and a sister, Betty Bryant Bailey.

Services will be at 3 p.m. Saturday at Mount Olive Baptist Church. Benton Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.