New 'Old' Library Reminds Me Why I Write

In my hometown of Columbus, Ohio, we're blessed to have one of the top-rated library systems in the nation. As a writer who works in both fiction and non-fiction as well as a documentary filmmaker, the Columbus Metropolitan Library is a godsend.

When reserving items, library users have the option of designating a "home library" where their items will always be shipped for them to pick up. My new home library is actually my "old" library - the Whitehall branch at 4445 E. Broad St.

The library reopened on April 11 after a multi-million-dollar rebuild at a new location that has a very special meaning to me. The new Whitehall branch now sits in front of my childhood grade school: Holy Spirit Catholic School.

The Whitehall library and Holy Spirit were both instrumental in shaping me as a young writer. It was at Holy Spirit that teachers such as my fourth and seventh grade teacher Mrs. Colleen McKitrick saw something in me and sent me to the Young Authors Conference a couple years in a row.

And it was at the Whitehall library, which used to be located across the street from Holy Spirit when I was growing up in the '80s, that I discovered a book called Bizou. This young adult novel by acclaimed author Norma Klein inspired my debut novel, The Chloe Chronicles.

Bizou is about a biracial girl who is raised in Paris by her mother, an African-American fashion model, and sets out on a journey to America to find the Caucasian father she never knew.

Between the Whitehall branch and Holy Spirit's school library, I discovered dozens of literary treasures that sparked my already-fertile imagination. I read everything from young adult novels by Klein and another favorite author of mine as a kid, Paula Danzinger (Can You Sue Your Parents for Malpractice), to a fascinating biography of Albert Einstein that I read and re-read voraciously several times.

I look forward to discovering many more treasures at the Whitehall library's new, 20,000 square-foot facility, which is nearly three times larger than the old location.

We're fortunate in central Ohio that you can reserve items that are housed at other branches throughout the region and have them delivered to your home library. I've already had several books, DVDs and music CDs delivered to the Whitehall branch.

An added bonus of the new location is that it has a super-convenient drive-thru pick-up window, so you don't even have to get out of your car to pick up your reserves - a first for the Columbus Metropolitan library system.

Though it's only been open just over a month, I'm already loving my new, "old" library. Who says you can't go home?