About the Author

Hello! Ciao! Bonjour! Hola! Kon’nichiwa!

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My name is Sarah Hope, and I am the author of the blog you are currently visiting. I do indeed often go by “Sarah Hope” in true Southern double-name tradition (just like Thelma Lou on The Andy Griffith Show and Mary Ann on Gillian’s Island if anyone else watches 60s sitcoms). I am definitely Southern in personality, sometimes even in speech, having been born and raised in Kentucky.

The 5 different greetings you saw illustrate my passion to travel the world. Thus far, I have explored cities in: Japan, Italy, Greece, England, France, & the United States.

I believe there are 3 ways for all individuals (regardless of age) to further their abilities and be better capable of success in the twenty-first century in the following pursuits: read 📚a wide array of books, articles, and information on the Internet, learn 🤔how to express themselves, communicate with others, engage with various technologies, grow 🦋as life-long learners and responsible global citizens. In case you haven’t noticed yet, I chose to call this blog Read+Learn=Grow! because I firmly believe life-long learners engage in all three, often recursively.

Education

  • MS in Library & Information Science
  • MS in Library Media Education
  • BS in Early Elementary Education

Professional Experience

  • 2025 to Present in Kentucky: Reference & Genealogy Librarian
    An opening presented itself for me to switch departments in my building so I transitioned away from Circulation into Reference Services, with a specialization in Genealogy/Local History. I enjoy the variety of daily technology troubleshooting interactions with patrons (printing from mobile devices, transferring photos onto an external hard drive, etc.), and I especially love assisting patrons with uncovering their family history stories (the best one to date has been finding the ship manifest record where a patron’s great-grandmother arrived in New York in the 1800s with her family through Ellis Island!). I maintain the Local History collection, which is being inventoried for the first time, and I have opportunities to generate procedure and scope documents highlighting the purpose of the library’s Local History Room.
  • 2024 to 2025 in Kentucky: Circulation Librarian
    In this position, I sharped my readers’ advisory skills, among the other abilities I developed in Pennsylvania in my previous position, discovering the world of clean romcoms that are not tied to aspects of faith, as well as managing circulation responsibilities of shelving and organizing, while also handling Reference questions when someone in that department wasn’t available.
  • 2022 to 2023 in Pennsylvania: Reference/Circulation/Children’s Assistant
    Here’s where I felt like being a “true librarian” began for me! Mostly, I answered information questions in the library, by telephone, and by email, while providing reader’s advisory guidance to patrons of all ages. Some book displays and a smidge of programming on the side rounded out my responsibilities, as well as working one weekly shift at the Circulation desk. I voluntarily cross-trained in all three Public Services Areas.
  • 2019 to 2022 in Pennsylvania: School Library Media Specialist
    Split between 2 entire elementary school buildings of ~900 K-5 students.
  • 2016 to 2018 in Kentucky: School Library Media Specialist
    Started my librarian career as a school library media specialist (that’s a fancy way to say “school librarian”);     worked in 3 different elementary buildings (one of which was actually a K-8 private school).

Favorite Books

I primarily read historical fiction and Christian fiction in various sub-genres (mostly WW2) with some classics, clean romcoms, narrative non-fiction, and still an occasional children’s book (commonly referred to collectively here as kidlit) thrown into the mix. Some of my current favorites are:

  • The Butterfly and the Violin by Kristy Cambron (Christian historical fiction/dual timelines/WW2)
  • Code Girls: The Untold Story of The American Women Code Breakers Who Helped Win World War II 
    by Liza Mundy (narrative non-fiction/WW2)
  • The Buy-In by Emma St. Clair (contemporary/clean romcom/marriage of convivence/forced proximity)  
  • Once Upon a Boy Band by Jenny Proctor (contemporary/clean romcom/celebrity/dog rescue)
  • Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery (kidlit/classic/historical/coming of age/Canadian)
  • Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder (kidlit/classic/historical/coming of age/pioneer)
  • We Are in a Book! by Mo Willems (kidlit/funny)
  • Stuart Little  by E. B. White (kidlit/fantasy/heartwarming)
  • Absolutely Truly by Heather Vogel Frederick (kidlit/mystery)

In my spare time, I enjoy reading (natch), Bible study, traveling, dancing, musical theatre, yoga, crocheting, being with my family and friends, and blogging.

I would not wish to darken any other life
– I want instead to be a
messenger of optimism and sunshine.
~ L. M. Montgomery

Happy RLGing!

Sarah Hope Tyler

📚🤔🦋