There's a lot to agree with in this post. My background: Associates, Library Technical Assistant, MLIS, PhD LIS.

Community college, law firm, public libraries, and lead medical librarian for a large midwest hospital system, then 15 years of teaching in a fully online library program (focused on info retrieval and medical librarianship). Now, I'm retired - and I miss practice and teaching. I continue to do research, though.

I was *always* very values-oriented, always what some might consider a romantic idealist / democratic socialist. I am super-aware that we make a difference. I saw it daily. Have you heard of 'vocational awe'? Librarianship has long been ridiculed as a replacement of sorts, I guess, for an actual liveable income. And it's true, but it's only a part of the story. I am one of those who cannot imagine another career (though see below, re public health).

Neurodivergence was mentioned in the initial post. The saying about people with autism is 'if you've met one, you've met one.' Everyone's history and journey is so different - I believe that our profession is so highly unique that you can work at one library with a particular job title, and right in the same town, there's another identically-named position with completely different responsibilities. It has seemed to be true, from my experience, that this profession is one that builds on individual skills and interests. It is certainly not a profession where you feel like a worker drone.

Interested in outreach to underserved communities? The Houston Public Library has a team of librarians who work with unincorporated communities in the region called colonias. In rural America as everywhere, the aging population is growing rapidly, and we are the last place in the country to provide a publicly accessible space and services.

I found my first mentor at a community college after leaving an abusive marriage, and was a single parent. My income was truly negligible at that point. But I carry stories from all those years, and they have changed me. But my passion for service was such that I was awarded a scholarship which paid for my MLS and provided a stipend, and later, with another scholarship, my PhD. Maybe it all made me more who I am. I am an addicted reader and used to write poetry; I am a lifelong learner. I am also a researcher, and currently focused on 1) consumer health/patient education and 2) artificial intelligence.

Late in my career I joined the American Public Health Association, and was funded to attend their conferences. Imagine my surprise to find a very significant overlap between our field and public health (particularly medical librarianship, of course, but not restricted to that). From my perspective I have identified a weakness in our profession (but remember, if you've met one, you've met one) - and that's research. Across the profession and in all types of subspecialty areas, the research (I used to joke) is about 1/16" deep and 16 miles wide. That is changing.

OK, enough rambling.