Using jQuery, how do I get the value from a textbox and then load a new page based on the value?

For example, lets say the textbox contains hello on page1.php, how do I change the default behavior of an anchor tag to now load the following

page2.php?txt=hello

I have the following so far:

<script type=text/javascript>

    $(document).ready(function(){

    $(a.mylink).click(function(event){

        alert(link clicked);

        event.preventDefault();

    });

});

</script>