Nashville Public Library + Nashville Public Library Foundation | 2015 Annual Report

STEPHANEE RAUSCH
Librarian, Harris Hillman Exceptional Education School
“
The Limitless Libraries program is
fantastic; I love it. It expands what we
have available to us. When I started working
at Harris Hillman, we had only 1,000 books
total in our library collection and most
of them were picture books. Limitless
Libraries has given us the resources to build
our collection and allow teachers to have
the materials they need for lesson plans.
Harris Hillman is a Pre-K through 12th-grade
school that serves students with severe
disabilities. I feel strongly that we need to
be providing our students with materials
appropriate for their age levels, while
making accommodations as necessary, and
Limitless Libraries enabled us to purchase
and have access to materials other than
picture books, such as fiction, nonfiction
and other more age-appropriate books
for the students and teachers to use.
At Harris Hillman, students’ progress is
incremental. We don’t always see big gains
as the result of our teaching. One thing
the students really enjoy is books. I can
tell how much they love the audiobooks.
You can see they are listening and that
these stories make them smile. If we can
help them feel happy and content, simply
by being read to, well, that’s a powerful
thing. Our students don’t communicate by
speaking, so we often don’t know what’s
happening inside their minds; they may
understand everything we are exposing
them to, curriculum-wise, and we just can’t
know. I’m excited about the opportunity
to provide age-appropriate curriculum,
books, lessons and materials, because then
we are doing our job by challenging them
and, most importantly, believing in them.
I feel so grateful for this innovative program,
and I’m glad someone with the idea brought
it to life.
“
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