The day after I had broken the news to friends and co-workers that I was leaving Hollywood for - gasp - librarianship, I got an unexpected call. NBC was interested in my television script. As I continued to plan my move home to Indiana, my options in Los Angeles continued to unfold. I had made the decision once - dissatisfied with the television industry, I was moving home to pursue a career in library science - but I was forced to make the decision again, this time with interviews at a major network and an all-expenses-paid writing fellowship dangled in front of me. Could I walk away from the realization of a dream I had chased for two years toward my new but admittedly less glamorous goal?

With all its allure, the entertainment industry couldn't offer me everything I wanted out of a career. In my time in Los Angeles, I had learned that to be satisfied with my work, I needed to be working for something bigger than myself. I decided I want to work in a field that is, at the core of its mission, having a positive influence on our communities.

The search for such a mission began in my adolescence, when I was first introduced to the idea of community service. My mother is the assistant director of a nonprofit children's shelter, so I had grown up with the conviction that serving the community is an important part of a meaningful life. I believed I was a "good" person and had an interest in helping others, but none of the opportunities presented really spoke to me. I was a wannabe do-gooder without a cause.

This continued into college, where I worked as the IU Honors College Community Service Program Coordinator. I ran the volunteer service program for two years, feeling like a hypocrite all the while. My peers were making a difference in the Bloomington community while I, the program coordinator, couldn't find a social issue that motivated me, nor a project for which I was truly enthusiastic.

In retrospect, I was developing a social consciousness and strong opinions on certain issues; I just didn't know it. A journalism course strengthened my interest in the freedom of information. I found myself speaking passionately about the need for equal accessibility of information and the problems caused by censorship at an Honors College discussion seminar at the main library. While I hadn't figured out how I felt about many social issues, my strong beliefs in equal rights for all citizens, in the essential role of education and information accessibility in the development of good citizens, and in the necessity of the freedom of information were coming together to form my mission.

My passion for public libraries has roots in my childhood. My mother often told me that one of the reasons she fell in love with my father was that though a steel mill worker, he brought home stacks of books from the public library each week. Information accessibility is the great equalizer and it encouraged a factory supervisor from poverty-stricken East Chicago to become an English professor and one of the greatest intellectuals I've met.

Though there is often a correlation between the academic performance of a child and his or her economic situation, public libraries offer children of all economic backgrounds the chance to supplement their public educations. Much of my childhood was spent at the library, where I learned how to find nonfiction books that interested me. This led to a lifelong passion for learning and self-education. Because a visit to the library is a more self-guided experience than our children's public educations, it encourages them to seek solutions to their problems, find information on topics of their own choosing, and thus develop both their self-reliance and individuality.

I've found that I love to help people and in particular, I love to help people find information. I plan to use my leadership and organizational skills to one day direct a public library, focusing on making public libraries more visible in the community and developing partnerships with nonprofits and special needs groups. But I consider my library career to be a long path and I'd like to start in children's librarianship, where I can develop programs that introduce children to the variety of fun and educational resources at our libraries. An important part of raising a child is preparing him or her to make decisions without our aid - as librarians, we can contribute to that effort by teaching our young patrons how to independently find resources to make informed decisions at every step of their adulthood.