An emotional Nicole Dudley had reached a crossroads in her academic career.

Several years before, in her admissions letter to the University of Iowa’s School of Library and Information Science (SLIS), this Clarinda, Iowa, native had expressed a desire to work in a small-town library, just like her mother.

Dudley, a voracious reader of 20 paperback books a week, essentially grew up in a library. From age 6 to 10, she visited the library frequently, staying for hours while her mother worked.

However, after a semester of study in the SLIS master’s program, Dudley suddenly realized that small-town library work was no longer her career goal. She came to this conclusion while speaking with a local librarian as part of a class assignment.

“I asked her to describe a typical day of her job and I was thinking, ‘I don’t want to do any of this stuff,’” Dudley said. “I went out to my car and cried for five minutes. I was like, ‘Why am I in SLIS?’ Going into my second semester, I was at a weird crossroads. I basically had a complete academic breakdown.”

Reflecting on this, Dudley realized that her first semester had exposed her to new ideas of librarianship, including interesting work in the digital realm.

However, she wondered if she had the background necessary to pursue a new direction because her computer knowledge was limited. Her only technical experience was redesigning her church’s website and taking UI Assistant Professor Haowei Hsieh’s computing foundation class. “There were these computer-oriented classes, but I came here to work in public libraries.” She felt conflicted.

Facing a major academic dilemma—digital librarianship or traditional librarianship—Dudley sought advice from Associate Professor Jim Elmborg, director of SLIS at the time.

As he did during her cohort’s orientation, Elmborg reminded Dudley to be open to new ideas and challenges.

Dudley decided to take more computer classes at SLIS, and, as a result, she became the lead database developer for the University of Iowa’s UNESCO City of Literature Mobile Application Development Team.

“Nikki had an abrupt and radical turnaround in her plans given her background, which makes it a compelling story,” Elmborg said. “She’s a smart person. She’s got a really good aptitude for database development. She’s a good thinker.”

Dudley and her team members plan to release a Citizen Scholarship Initiative for its Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature iPhone app that will allow users to upload video, audio, photo, and text files to the website.

“She writes code that interacts with the code that runs the app,” said Jon Winet, director of the University of Iowa’s UNESCO City of Literature Mobile Development Team. “She redesigned a database based on what she knew. Our team is like an airplane taxiing down the runway looking at the directions for how to build a wing.

“That’s really what research is all about at a university, and she is someone who has taken to her field and run with it.”

The connection to the UNESCO City of Literature is a good fit for Dudley, who came to the UI with an interest in the Writer’s Workshop. She studied anthropology and linguistics as an undergraduate. Seeing herself as a generalist, library and information science seemed to be a good outlet for her interests.

Dudley earned her Master’s degree in the School of Library and Information Science in December 2011. Since graduation, she has been hired as a researcher in the University of Iowa Digital Studio for Public Humanities.  Her research interests include data visualization and designing web interfaces for digital collection content creation.

The UI helped Dudley focus her efforts. “Where did I want to allocate my resources? It’s a gamble,” she says. “There’s always risk involved in any decision. Instead of hoping things will turn out for the best, you have to take whatever turns out and make it the best.”