Elizabeth Sherrard & Elizabeth Atack on the Nashville Public Library
Elizabeth Sherrard and Elizabeth Atack are leaders at Nashville Public Library, working together to expand access to education, literacy, and community resources through innovative programs and donor support that uplift families across Davidson County.
About Elizabeth Sherrard and Elizabeth Atack
Elizabeth Sherrard is the Director of Major Gifts at the Nashville Public Library Foundation, where she plays a pivotal role in securing funding for programs that empower communities through education, culture, and technology. By connecting donors with initiatives that make a tangible impact, Elizabeth helps ensure that Nashville Public Library continues to expand opportunities for lifelong learning and civic engagement.
Elizabeth Atack is a nationally recognized librarian and literacy advocate, serving as Program Manager at the Nashville Public Library. Elizabeth has dedicated her career to transforming how families in Nashville access books and learning resources. She leads innovative programs that inspire a love of reading, broaden educational opportunities, and strengthen connections between the library and the community.
About Nashville Public Library
With one main library and 20 branches across Davidson County, Nashville Public Library (NPL) serves as a vital hub for literacy, education, and cultural connection. In FY24–25, the library’s budget increased by $2.2 million to $46.3 million, reflecting its growing impact and demand for services.
Nashville Public Library leads impactful school and literacy initiatives, from Limitless Libraries, which provided materials to 86,000 students and saved Metro Schools $650,000, to early literacy programs reaching 230 classrooms and afterschool and summer programs serving 2,800 students. Volunteers contribute over 700 hours each month to the Talking Library for those with print disabilities, while major partners like the Dollywood Foundation invested $4.5 million in 2024 to expand access. Looking ahead, NPL will launch Begin Bright to place Imagination Library books in every childcare center across Davidson County, alongside new offerings like vinyl record borrowing, art lending, and expanded children’s programming.
Resources
Nashville Public Library
Begin Bright
Limitless Libraries
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Carli Patton: Liz Atak, Elizabeth Sherrard, welcome to Signature Required. I'm going to read a brief bio on both of y'all and we'll get started.
Carli Patton: Elizabeth, you are the Director of Major Gifts at the Nashville Public Library and connecting donors with [00:01:00] library initiatives is your chief goal. Yes. Yes. That is it. And Liz, you are a program manager leading programs that transform Nashville families engaged with education. And really when I read your bio earlier, my favorite is that you have won the, I love my librarian award.
Carli Patton: Actually, it was Teacher, it was family teacher of the year. Aww. And that was in 2014? Yes. So you've been a librarian your whole career?
Liz: I'm actually not a librarian. Okay. I have a, I don't have a library degree. I have a degree in education. Oh. So I think of myself as an educator who works. in the library.
Carli Patton: Okay,
Liz: When I moved to Nashville and got my first library card, I felt like I had made it, like I had a permanent Nashville address, which is what I needed to get my card and I have been continuously impressed at each phase of my life, how the library has played a part.
Carli Patton: And what's interesting about the two of you sitting here is it seems like [00:02:00] you have two sides of the same coin, right? You're doing a lot of engagement with individual families and making an impact on individual lives, but you're also serving as a catalyst for other organizations that want to do great work to come in and serve as well.
Carli Patton: So I can't wait to get into all of it. I didn't know this. The National Public Library serves 6. 5 million. million items. That's what they served in 2024. As we talk about life evolving, right? Everyone thinks we're in the digital age and do books even have a place with e-readers and all this. Somebody tell me, what role do libraries still play?
Carli Patton: Obviously a big one if you're serving 6. 5 million items a year.
Liz: Yeah, so I think about libraries, they're about two things. They're about information and access. And that was important a hundred years ago, and it's just as important today. If [00:03:00] you need trusted information about, say, a surgery that your doctor mentioned you might need, sure, you can go home and Google that, but if you go to the library, a librarian can help you find a website or a health resources database in our collection that can give you accurate information so you know what, you know what your doctor is suggesting.
Liz: You can help you formulate questions to ask. So that's a big piece of what the library is about. We're a repository of information. And then the access piece is really essential too it's a place where you can go and you can look at books, you can browse the internet and there's no expectation to buy anything.
Liz: It is free and open to everyone. And that's a really special special thing that there are no, the only barrier to access is your ability to get there. And you don't even have to actually go there. You can, if you have internet at your home [00:04:00] or at your work, you're actually able to log on and get access to all that trusted information as well.
Carli Patton: If you hit on something really interesting, we talk about the digital age, but gosh, doesn't it feel so isolating when you get that diagnosis, or you have to research that thing that you never thought you were going to have to research, and then you're at home on Google, and it's just, it is overwhelming to your senses to Google, things like that, and I never thought about it, that you can go talk to a librarian, and there are so many health databases that you probably couldn't just pull up on your internet browser by yourself.
Carli Patton: And you don't feel like you're by yourself. You're in a community. Which brings me to, you are one library, but 20 branches. Talking about the community that you guys cultivate and the access, what are you trying to do to make sure that you're available for every kid, every family.
Elizabeth: I think that's the beauty of Nashville Public Library.
Elizabeth: 21 branches across Davidson County and every [00:05:00] branch looks and feels different than the next because it really is intentional about reflecting the community that it's in and the patrons that come. We have a branch in Southeast Antioch and they have the largest collection of multiple languages of books and their signage has multiple languages because we know that's where a lot of Spanish speaking people, Kurdish, come to that branch.
Elizabeth: The Richland Park branch has got a lot of children that come and so they have wonderful children's programs. It really Just hats off to the librarians that work at each branch, just really knowing their community and providing the needed services that, that they see each and every day.
Liz: Yeah, we know, still, I talked a little bit about access earlier. We have 21 locations in almost every corner of the county, but we also know that so many people can't make it to the library. And, this is me putting My hat, my work hat on my programming specifically targets preschool [00:06:00] aged children and their teachers and families.
Liz: About 20,000 children are enrolled in some sort of child care center or early education program across the country. It's Davidson County and their parents are at work and the teachers are at work. And so the work of bringing books to life, the program I manage is to actually go to those childcare centers to support the teachers, to do story times and we work closely with the library's puppet truck to bring programming to the childcare centers.
Liz: And then we do workshops for parents and families to support them. As they support their children's early literacy skill development. And so I think that outreach piece is really key. And I think it's something really special about Nashville Public Library. And something that a lot of, other libraries and other cities do outreach, I think no one does it quite like Nashville Public Library.
Carli Patton: I happen to agree with you. So what you're touching on is going to all these daycare centers. And so that brings me to. [00:07:00] Miss Dolly in these Bright Beginnings, and part of this Bright Beginnings work, correct me if I'm wrong, is to get a cart of books in every child care facility across Davidson County.
Carli Patton: Is that accurate?
Liz: Yeah. We have launched a campaign or initiative called Begin Bright. And one of the things that Begin Bright aims to do is to put a little library in a, in every childcare center across Davidson County. So bringing books to life, my, the job that I showed up for 18 years ago, does that outreach to early childhood education programs.
Liz: One of the things that my team has known for years or have observed for years is that, children are hard on books. It's really hard for childcare centers, even ones that are very well funded to keep new, exciting, interesting books on their shelves because the books when they're new and exciting and interesting, they get loved to death and books are expensive.
Liz: So [00:08:00] a lot of our childcare centers Don't have big budgets to go out and replace those books. And so we've often thought over the years, wouldn't it be great if we could provide more books to childcare centers? For Begin Bright, we worked with a consultant who did a landscape analysis of early childhood education in Davidson County and looked at, what were the library's strengths, what were the gaps in services to the child care centers, and book access was a big one.
Liz: Her recommendation was to provide a little library to every child care center so that they would have books on hand. Also to make that library not a stagnant collection, but to refresh it regularly, replace the books that get loved to death and then also to provide curriculum materials and resources so that teachers know how, know what's in the collection and know how to use it in the classroom.
Liz: And so we're really excited to collaborate with Dolly Parton's Imagination Library on that initiative.
Carli Patton: I love that. And it's so true. Kids do love [00:09:00] books to death. Our copy of Nuffle Bunny by Mo Willems the whole spine is detached from the rest of the
Elizabeth: book.
Carli Patton: It's our favorite. We love it. But I think it's so interesting you're talking about refreshing because kids do get stuck on a book and love it to death.
Carli Patton: But then when they're done with it, they're done with it and they're ready for the next book. I love that. I was raised by a working mom and, yeah, we didn't get to go to the library because she would work. I'd be at daycare before they opened and sometimes till the very hours that it closed and trying to get to a library or purchase a bunch of books on her salary was just not, available, but it was my grandmother that volunteered at her library and whenever I would go stay with her for weeks at a time, she would take me in and she helped with, and it was more than like you're saying, it's more than just books, right?
Carli Patton: They were a place where people voted. They were a place where communities came together. There was a lot of elderly people in our population. So she would get the [00:10:00] books and then run them to the elderly that couldn't get there. And so I think I learned community service by going to the library. Thank you.
Carli Patton: With my grandmother, but I'm sure you guys hear those stories all the time,
Elizabeth: but they never get old. Yeah it's inspiring every day to go out and know that there's a need and the library is uniquely positioned and fits to address so many. We have a donor that says the library's pretty much for everyone from the twinkle to the wrinkle instead of, cradled a grave twinkle.
Elizabeth: Can you please
Carli Patton: put it on a t shirt? Yeah, I think we should. I would really like a library t shirt. That's a great idea. From the
Elizabeth: twinkle to the wrinkle. And Liz's work has been so incredible. I think we look at. Child care across the city, and yes, there's some child care that have a lot of funds and they're doing all right, but the majority struggle to keep the lights on and to pay the wages for the child care workers and don't have the money for books.
Elizabeth: And also, these child care workers don't have an education background, so not only to be able to provide the books, [00:11:00] but the curriculum and materials and even the confidence to be able to use those books in the classroom I think is huge. Like you growing up were in child care a lot, their Children are spending the majority of their day there and knowing that their brains are developing at the fastest rate in those first years, they need to be surrounded by books.
Elizabeth: All day in all pieces of the classroom. And I think we all know we're supposed to read to children, but really when you even look further into the science behind it, it is so compelling that if children aren't ready to read by kindergarten, they are just set up for a lot of struggles going forward.
Elizabeth: So I think that's what Begin Bright is all about. I think we have an audacious goal of having every child in Nashville reading ready by kindergarten through Begin Bright.
Carli Patton: Oh, I think that's fantastic. And I do think there's some parent guilt that you're touching on. Yes. I had three kids in three years, so I would sit and try to read to my kids and then, [00:12:00] darn if somebody, the baby wasn't crying, or they would get bored because I don't do the voices correctly.
Carli Patton: And I found Storytime at the library and It assuaged my guilt because I was lucky enough to be in a position that I could take them during the day to story time. But it was somebody else reading the words that maybe they were so sick of me talking to them all day, they wanted somebody else. Exactly, yeah.
Carli Patton: And so I think that's really powerful. One thing I loved, Reading about what you guys are doing is how many hours you have talking library available and I would love to talk about that a little bit just on a personal level I have a daughter with dyslexia and that maybe is part of why reading at home was so hard I had no idea trying to teach my kids to read you don't know when your kid Isn't getting it and what works for one doesn't work for another and so Verbal auditory taking in has become a huge part of how we do books in our [00:13:00] house for our daughter.
Carli Patton: Just hearing you talk about your fears as a parent of not, maybe not being enough as far as reading and literacy are concerned. And that's something that I think so many parents and families feel.
Liz: Because, we think it that, in order to read with our child and to share that gift with them, it has to look a certain way and something that we do in our workshops for parents, and then is also part of really every children's program that the library does is to show everybody that it doesn't have to be a sit still and be quiet and listen activity that you can engage a child's whole body with books and reading for a lot of children listening attentively doesn't mean that they're sitting in they're sitting and looking and being very quiet.
Liz: They are, taking in what you're saying and they're getting excited and they want to try something out that they're hearing about in the book. A lot of what we do in our workshops is assuage that guilt. I think about this woman who, [00:14:00] this was so long ago, she was in a workshop that I was leading and she was a grandmother.
Liz: And she had a visual impairment and one of the things that we do in our parent workshops and that we'll do in the digital platform that we're creating for Begin Bright is we teach a technique that's called dialogic reading. You don't have to remember that. I think it is. But it's simply a technique for using a book as a spark to a conversation.
Liz: And so as an adult, the way you do that is you open the book and you ask an open ended question about what's happening in the picture. What's happening here? What do you think is going to happen next? And you let the child talk. And as the adult, you stay quiet unless you need to keep the child talking.
Liz: The whole goal is to get the child talking. And I had this room full of parents and grandparents, and I was showing them how you do this technique. And she raised her hand and she said, my children are all grown. I help take care of my grandchildren now and I have a visual impairment. [00:15:00] And that was how I read books.
Liz: I couldn't actually see the words in the book. So I just asked them what was happening in the pictures and let them tell me. And I just thought I was doing that because that was the only thing I could do. And now I. that it was a really good thing. And and I love that. I think we all have the assets that we need to build early literacy skills into in young children and to get those children, not teach them how to read, but get them reading ready.
Liz: And so sometimes it's helpful just to have somebody give you a pat on the back and acknowledge that, you asking, Oh, what's happening in that picture just because. It just comes out. You're not even thinking about it, that is a really good thing to do. Or singing, silly songs with your child in the bathtub or while you're walking down the sidewalk, like those are really important things that build early literacy skills in your child.
Liz: And so much of it comes naturally. So we give them the pat on the back to tell them that they're doing a great job, whether or not they [00:16:00] know it and then offer them some tips and do more. And we always connect everything to the library and its resources.
Carli Patton: I love that. We do research at our foundation and over 80 percent of women in Tennessee think it's harder to be a mom today than it was 20 years ago.
Carli Patton: And there's so many things that go into that, right? Between the digital age and all the things we see. But I do think having this exposure to what other people are doing creates so much fear that we're doing it wrong. I remember being a young mom and just breaking down, being like, I'm gonna mess him up.
Carli Patton: Why did anybody ever give me a child? This was the worst idea ever. And I love that you come alongside people and don't say, this is what you're doing wrong, or hey, do it this way. It's, here's a spectrum of things that you have access to. And I think that's phenomenal. So let me ask, what is the thing that you are most excited about?
Carli Patton: That you are doing right now. I could list there's program [00:17:00] after program, stat after stat that you guys are growing year over year. Your budget is exploding. It probably doesn't feel like it's exploding, but it's getting growing so much year over year. What are you waking up every day? I'm so excited to work on X and they can be different things.
Carli Patton: As the foundation side. So we exist as the nonprofit that we raise money to give to Liz and the library and their team to go do great things with. Every morning I get up and I'm so excited watching this come to life. We've been raising the funds since February of 24 and it's becoming a reality.
Elizabeth: They're filming these digital trainings. The little libraries are in the works. The plan is to start. Piloting in the spring, early summer. So to see something that we've really been talking about and researching for almost two years now, watching it come to life and then watching the city just wrap around and join us.
Elizabeth: We had a really audacious goal of raising 20 million for Begin [00:18:00] Bright. And we, it's an, it was an initial goal because it's a lot of money and we've made it we have hit the 20 we're not stopping because we want this to be sustained for years and creating the endowment for it, but it's just been very humbling to watch not only the library do their incredible work, but watch the magic of Nashville philanthropy come behind it and and see the problems and want to be part of the solution with us.
Carli Patton: So you've reached your goal of initial goal. Initial goal. Initial goal. Never stop growing. Yes. If you're growing, if you're not growing, you're dying. So your initial goal of 20 million for this program. That's a huge deal.
Elizabeth: It was a big deal in less than a year.
Carli Patton: And just a, I love, I think people are so far, so behind it right now because it's so simple.
Carli Patton: Let's put books in baby's hands.
Elizabeth: Exactly. That's our first, one of our first donors just such a wonderful man and he is asked a lot for gifts and he's, he looked at us, he said, [00:19:00] this is going to work. It is so simple, that. We're teaching very simple tools, and we're putting books in the hands of kids.
Elizabeth: And we've hired Cynthia Osborne in the prenatal to three policy impact center to study this over the four years to, we know it's going to work, but we want it in writing and the proof. And she does national research across the country. And she said, I've seen pieces of this done in different cities, but I've never seen it all put together in one program.
Elizabeth: She said, it's, there's no way it's not going to work. And not that there won't be tweaks and edits along the way, but we feel really good about what we're creating here.
Carli Patton: That's so exciting.
Liz: I think Elizabeth touched on a lot of it. So it's, it's all the pieces together.
Liz: So through Begin Bright. We have the opportunity to solve so many of the, not problems, fill in so many of the gaps that we've seen over the years. In child care in the early and [00:20:00] in the kind of the early education ecosystem in Nashville and so being able to supply little libraries with curriculum materials and to know that it's not just a one time.
Liz: Gift of books, here are your books, good luck, we'll see you later that we're going to be able to continually refresh the collections, provide curriculum materials through the digital learning platform that we're building. We can offer ongoing training for teachers and for parents and then to, be walking alongside Dr.
Liz: Osborne and her team at Peabody. To know, whether or not we're making the impact that we think and hope we are, but also walking alongside them to make those tweaks and modifications along the way so that we know that what we're building makes that impact and we know how to sustain that impact over time.
Liz: I think it's not often and in the nonprofit and government world where you get to wake up every day and [00:21:00] think about this really long term project that where the intent is to sustain it is to build it in such a way that there's no question about sustainability. And that's really special.
Liz: I think so often you build something and then you see if it works and if it works. Great. Maybe you can continue doing it. If it doesn't work we tried. Yes. And I'm so excited that I, that, there's not going to be that, oh, it's going to be okay, that if this piece didn't work, how do we fix it?
Liz: How do we, Do something that will work. And so having so many early education professionals helping us having Dr. Osborne and her team working with us, having the philanthropic community that is so invested in making this a success that's really exciting. Oh
Carli Patton: my gosh, I love all of that.
Carli Patton: And I think too my husband and I are involved in a lot of non profits. It can be really hard to measure impact you have all this empathy and you have a heart to serve a [00:22:00] community and you know intrinsically this has to happen, but without the data you can't get donors on board, you can't send your message.
Carli Patton: So I really applaud you guys for leaning into data on the beginning. I think it's going to really make you have the longevity that you're hoping for. At least for the data nerds out there. Give me a novel all day, but I know that I'm married to a data nerd that will want all of that data. That's huge.
Carli Patton: What do you wish people knew? about this program. You guys are working your tails off. You're raising money, you're getting this sustainability of this initiative in place. It has all this buzz yes, let's give babies books, but, and young children. But what do you wish people knew that they probably don't?
Liz: Something that, you know, just as I reflect back on my career thus far with the library, something that back in 2007 that I don't think was as widely [00:23:00] known as it is now, but it's still not as widely known as it should be, is just how critical those early years are in children's development.
Liz: And during that, those first three years of life, children's brains are producing millions of connections every day. Every second as they take in the world around them, and then by the time the child's five, their brain is 90 percent developed. And so I think just recognizing how important those early years are and then the important role that parents, educators, and librarians play in that brain development is just something that I wish everybody knew going in that, these are really critical years and it's and everybody has a role to play.
Liz: Everybody has something really important that they can do to better the future.
Elizabeth: Can I have two? I think one piece that really struck me, we heard we've heard for years now that the third grade reading level, only one in three are [00:24:00] reading on third grade level. And third grade is just too late to start working on that.
Elizabeth: And kindergarten is too late to start. And that's where I feel like this program is so important is getting the children before they reach kindergarten. We've had a couple of meetings with Dr. Battle. And she is so supportive of this because she said, I get these children in kindergarten and we're expecting kindergarten teachers to teach those that are almost reading and then those that don't even know their letters yet.
Elizabeth: And we're expecting them to all read at the same time and move up at the same time. And so she just feels like this is such a gift to her and to the school system in Nashville to have children hopefully coming in on the same level. So that's from the programmatic piece. I hope people realize we need to start young and not wait until there's already a problem in second and third grade.
Elizabeth: And then from the fundraising perspective a bigger piece is just knowing that the community can [00:25:00] support the library. I think a lot of people think, oh, it's a government entity, tax dollars pay for the library. And that is true. They pay the majority of the budget, but it is the foundation that comes in and raises that private support so that we can be innovative and try new things and be flexible and nimble, like creating Begin Bright.
Elizabeth: And the city will oftentimes take pieces of that on once, once we show success, but it's really that public private support that makes these award winning programs happen.
Carli Patton: There's something so entrepreneurial about what you guys are doing. And I think for better, for worse, maybe sometimes it's deserved.
Carli Patton: Sometimes it's not. Things, government entities, budgets that traditionally are supported by tax dollars, don't always use funds in the best way, or they get a bad rap for being slow to pivot or try new things. And what I'm hearing from you guys is so refreshing. It's Hey, that stigma doesn't apply here.
Carli Patton: [00:26:00] Look at all of the cool things that you're doing. And you're not afraid to say, I need to refresh this. You're not afraid to say, I want the data because if this doesn't work, we're not going to scrap it, but we're going to fix it and we're going to make this last. And I just really applaud you because I think people need to hear success stories where their tax dollars.
Carli Patton: Are at work in a way that matters and oh, by the way, you can give more if this is something you're interested in. Now to play devil's advocate a little bit What about the donors pool out there? that aren't grandparents or Don't have young kids and that's not the thing that they're waking up every day worried about What is the societal impact of early literacy?
Carli Patton: Why should everyone care?
Liz: I have, I know you mentioned you have a five year old. I have a five and a half year old. So for a lot of the time that I've been doing this work I didn't have a child.
Liz: So it wasn't, personal in that sense, but it is [00:27:00] personal because we live in a community. And so when I go to the grocery store, the person, the checker, that someone, I want that person to have, good literacy skills because they're going to be able to do their job more efficiently.
Liz: I think literacy is so foundational that it really touches every aspect of our lives. And I think, I think if you asked somebody who had low literacy levels, they would they would say the same that, literacy does touch every aspect of their lives and they would have to come up with, work arounds.
Liz: So I think as a member of the community, I see, the people that I interact with on a day to day basis, I want them. To have good literacy skills because it helps them and it helps the whole community. So I think we're all interconnected. And I think having basic literacy, strong basic literacy skills is just part of that.
Liz: We all benefit. We all benefit when we all benefit.
Elizabeth: Yeah. And the percentage of children that end up dropping out, in high [00:28:00] school, because it's all tied back to that third grade. reading and a lot of things are predicted. Prison beds dropout rates. They look at that third grade reading level because that's a third grade is where you switch from learning to read to reading to learn.
Elizabeth: And it's just a critical point in life. And so it really impacts all pieces of society. When you have, a population that is not literate, it affects. Crime, it affects workforce availability, so many pieces that even if you don't have children, It's affecting you as well.
Liz: There is also, a really strong link between your overall health and your literacy level. And we're whole people, we're all whole people. And one.
Liz: piece of your life impacts another. And I think of literacy, having good literacy, it means that you also probably have good health. You probably have more earning power, it just, it, we're all connected. It's [00:29:00] all connected in you. And so it's just, it's a foundational piece of who you are and who you can be.
Carli Patton: I think it's important too for what we want. Not just our nation, but we're focused here in Tennessee, right? Particularly National Public Libraries. But in Tennessee, everyone wants to be here for a reason. Everyone's moving here for a reason. It's because it's such a cool place to live. And I just happen to think literacy initiatives, like what you guys are doing, is what makes Tennessee great.
Carli Patton: Tennessee. It's what makes it the place that you want to raise your babies. It's what makes it the place you want to have a business because you want this workforce that has been poured into since before they went to kindergarten to help them be whole people, successful people with unlimited potential.
Carli Patton: And I think too, the longer I'm on this earth, the more I think about it's just the weight of positive input And every time you read a book, or someone tells you're smart, or someone tells you I know this is really [00:30:00] hard, but you can do it, or you're not being a horrible parent, you're doing your best, and here's one more thing that you can do to be a little bit more educated about what you're doing than you were yesterday, that tips the scales in self esteem in such a way that it's you know better, you do better.
Carli Patton: Absolutely. The more positive we can get, the less negative we're going to put out. Just that's my simple brain science for you today, it's so true. It is so true. So I feel like I'd be remiss if I sat here and didn't ask a few just like fun questions. Sure. Of you guys. So working in the world of literacy and books, I feel like this would be picking your favorite child, but what book impacted you the most growing up or in your adult life?
Carli Patton: What's your book? My book. I'll start. You start. Look at how excited she is to answer this question. I'm
Elizabeth: like, oh, there's so many. She lit
Carli Patton: up like a firecracker. I'll let you have more than one if you need to.
Liz: [00:31:00] As a child, my favorite book was Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans and it was, it's one of the first books I remember my parents reading to me, but I don't remember about it though, is that I loved it so much.
Liz: I wanted it for my bedtime story every night, but I also didn't want the lights on because I wanted it to be dark so I could fall asleep. So they had to memorize it. So they would just recite it to me. And first of all, they can still recite it from memory. But what I think about that as as an adult reflecting back is that, it almost, it's a great story.
Liz: And I still love that book. But it wasn't about the book, it was about that feeling that you get when somebody reads to you. And I think now, I read that book with my son. But I remember that feeling. That, cozy, loved, loving feeling of having my parents read that book to me.
Liz: And so that's something that I channel a lot in my [00:32:00] everyday work when I'm thinking about how can we support young children and teachers and parents in early literacy is how can we get to everybody, to that, that warm, fuzzy feeling of being read to, but also, when my parents talk about it, they talk about how much they loved reading it.
Liz: And you can see their faces light up when they recite it, 40 something years later from memory. And that's what I want everybody to feel.
Carli Patton: Oh, I love that. No pressure. No, no pressure.
Elizabeth: The first children's book that I jumped, popped into my mind, and again, I have the same, even the mental image of my grandmother sitting there reading Corduroy, and I remember when I had my first and someone gave it to us and I almost cried just all of a sudden, like the memories of, and I hadn't thought about the book Corduroy.
Elizabeth: In so long and just that feeling of being at my [00:33:00] grandmother's on her kind of weird looking green couch and snuggled in and reading about that bear who gets lost but then is found and loved. And I think that's a piece of books. We had Kate to Camillo come and speak Just incredible children's author, and this has stuck with me, of books, show children that there are hard things in life, but that it's going to be okay.
Elizabeth: And that's how, we are going to encounter difficult things and books can show you not only that you can make it, but there are good things that can come on the other side and introduce you to different cultures and people. It opens doors to everything. And yeah, I think Corduroy is still, though, close to my standing.
Carli Patton: I think mine is Anne of Green Gables. My daughter's middle name is Anne with an E. Aw. Daphne Anne after Sweet Anne. And I just, I remember my mom reading it to me for the [00:34:00] first time, and it was the first time I felt like I saw myself in a person in a book. And she was like pesky and annoyed everyone, but also super heartwarming.
Carli Patton: And I was like, That's kind of me. I think people like me, but I know that I talk way more than I should, and I should probably go away and mind my own business, but I'm just not going to. And I saw myself in Anne. And then after I loved it, then we would get the movies, so after I read them all, and any time I was sick, back before streaming, I would have Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea.
Carli Patton: And like, when I was, like, sick, and you didn't want to always read when you were sick, I would watch them on repeat so that in my mom's bed. So that was like the one two punch for me. I obviously loved Anna. Yes. She's I don't know. I think we see ourselves and that's why I have a lot of friends and I always joke this is probably a horrible thing, but there's always gonna be that one thing you wish you could change about yourself, right?
Carli Patton: That like I wish I was better at X or Y. I wish I was better at reading nonfiction.
Carli Patton: Because I [00:35:00] feel like I would intake so much, and there's so much I wish I knew, and I meet so many brilliant people, and I wish I would have kept that data in my head. But I just love fiction so much, and I find that I process complex thought.
Carli Patton: I think about all of the world's problems, but I don't think about them while I'm reading, but I, at the end of a book, I'm like, something clicks for me, and I feel like I can go and be a better human to the world when I read. Fiction, but that's my self that is my, me telling it myself is I wish I could read more nonfiction, but I'm a novel girl.
Liz: I think life is short and you should read what you enjoy. And like you said, it's not like you just read a story and then that's that. It sparks thoughts and connections for you and and I think, any good book, whether it's fiction or nonfiction does that. So I'm really big on. If it feels good, read it.
Liz: And not, no judgment with what [00:36:00] you read. Like we read, we can read for information, like just to get information, but we can also read for pleasure and that there's nothing wrong with that and just do it.
Carli Patton: I think reading in my life has also been a form of therapy. Yeah. I remember really hard seasons, and when you watch a show you, I don't know, maybe just me, I find myself scrolling.
Carli Patton: Or if I'm cooking dinner, I'm also trying to help with homework. But when I sit with a book, I'm going to miss entire swaths of the story if I'm not focused. And all of a sudden it's like your brain has a break even though it's working. Yes. Have you experienced that?
Elizabeth: Absolutely. There's nothing else you can be doing when you're reading but actually reading.
Elizabeth: And I don't think there are many other activities these days where we're not trying to multitask. And it's a gift that we need to embrace more and make more time, I think, for in the busyness of life.
Carli Patton: So what are you reading right now?
Elizabeth: I'm actually [00:37:00] reading The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry.
Carli Patton: Oh, yes.
Elizabeth: And it is fascinating and very convicting. I was going
Carli Patton: to say, does it hurt your feelings because just the title hurts my feelings?
Elizabeth: No, it's actually a little bit liberating and really making me think through how much as a family and even in a career, like how much I'm hurrying and is it really all necessary?
Carli Patton: It's
Elizabeth: a great book. Highly recommend.
Carli Patton: How about you?
Liz: I am reading a book. It's actually not out yet, but it will be out later this spring. It's called Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson. Kevin Wilson is a. I think he's one of my favorite writers. He is on the faculty at University of the South in their creative writing program.
Liz: And because he lives in Tennessee, a lot of his stories, at least in part, take place in Tennessee. But he has just this real oddball. sense of humor that I really [00:38:00] appreciate. And he walks that, that line between, something being just totally out there and a little like fantastical, but also grounded in reality.
Liz: And also just really heartwarming. And so this book is about about a young woman who runs a family farm with her mom and her her dad has left her like 20 years before the book began. And a man shows up at their farm one day and says, I'm your half brother. My dad left us when I was 10 and I figured out he came here.
Liz: Do you want to come? And I think he did this two or three more times. Do you want to come with me on a road trip to find our other half siblings? And so that's what the, but the book is about, and I don't know, I'm only half, I'm like halfway. I don't know what's going to happen next.
Carli Patton: I have a running with a gal that I work with, we have a running debate.[00:39:00]
Carli Patton: Do you read one book at a time? I'm one, or do you, I won't tell you which one. Do you read one at a time, start to finish, or do you have multiple going at once?
Elizabeth: One book at a time, for sure.
Liz: I have tried to be the kind of person that has multiple books going and I just can't do it because I get too caught up.
Liz: in one of the books and then the other one gets, sidelined until I finish that. So I'm a one book person.
Carli Patton: I'm a weirdo. I have three or four at a time and I can't help it. I always have one that I'm reading that is like a novel that I'm reading for joy. I have one on my Kindle in case I'm in a car line and I always keep a Kindle.
Carli Patton: Like in my purse so that I'm never without a book. And then I have at least one for work on Audible going and then one, which is usually nonfiction, which I can't make myself sit and read. So I usually have a nonfiction on Audible. Or another novel on Audible.
Elizabeth: So you must read a lot of books during the year.
Elizabeth: You wish I
Carli Patton: did, but [00:40:00] I never am alone. Yeah. Because I have four children. You have four children. So that's why I maximize like those ten minute moments. But I may not get to read more than ten minutes a day. So it takes a really long time to read all of them. But I always have them all going.
Elizabeth: I love that.
Elizabeth: My daughter is like that. She's in fourth grade and I'll just watch her, their books all over the house and she'll just pick one up and read that one and then she leaves that and is in another room reading another one. I said, how do you know what's going on in all these? She goes, Oh yes, I do. She sounds brilliant.
Elizabeth: We should be friends. I will say, I feel like it's my crowning achievement that she loves to read. As a parent, I feel like I've succeeded in something. She's never without a book in the car or in her hand.
Carli Patton: Good job, Mama. Thank you.
Carli Patton: One thing we haven't talked about yet is the digital back end of this, what you guys are truly building out online to support this. Can you tell me a little bit about that?
Liz: Yes, absolutely. We have the opportunity to create a [00:41:00] digital learning platform. Something that we have known for a long time is that, teachers need training both just because they want to be effective teachers, but also they actually have to have it.
Liz: Like they're required by the state to get a certain number of hours, which is a good thing. It is. It's absolutely a good thing. And in order to really grow our teacher professional development offerings and our parent workshop offerings the best way to scale it is to be digital.
Liz: And so we actually have been working with a company called Bounceback. They have developed an online learning platform that is around teacher teacher mental health, but we're using the architecture of that platform to make a learning platform that's about early literacy. And so we're in the process of filming interviews and panel discussions with experts and teachers and parents where they just talk about early literacy, why it's [00:42:00] important, what they can do, what has worked really well or hasn't worked really well for them.
Liz: And then we'll make. short little, 60 to 90 second practice videos for teachers and parents on simple things that they can do to build early literacy skills.
Liz: Just like everything that the library does it'll be free we're going to be rolling it out to the child care centers first in conjunction with the little libraries.
Liz: So when they get their little library, they'll also get access to the app. And then the hope is after we've had a chance to work with our friends at Peabody and really measure and make sure that we're making the impact that we want to make with this digital content. Then we will take it countywide.
Liz: So anybody in Nashville would have access.
Carli Patton: Oh, that's going to be such a cool resource. For people because you know better you do better and those little videos will help so that people like me don't have to read the parenting books Exactly. We can watch the videos and then go read our novel. Exactly.
Carli Patton: And
Elizabeth: they're all [00:43:00] They're such simple things that anyone can do. It's really a matter of knowing to do them I did not know when I had infants about serve and return. I maybe did it some just unknowingly, but If I had a 60 minute video and seen that, it would have caused some different, maybe better reactions interactions, and I think that's where this platform is going to be such a gift.
Elizabeth: I think the other piece of this is childcare workers. They don't have time during the day. They're taking care of children.
Elizabeth: And having someone come and just speak at you, what they're doing. Is hard. And so for them to be able to have short videos to do when they are able to, is gonna give them a lot more freedom and accessibility than they have right now.
Carli Patton: I love everything about this. Thank you guys so much for coming on.
Carli Patton: I learned so much about Begin Bright. I learned so much about the opportunity to actually serve the library through our, Treasure. Time, talent, and treasure. Yes. And just what a [00:44:00] resource you are for parents. I've known that at every stage of my life, but I think when you get in the weeds, it's really easy to forget.
Carli Patton: And when you feel like you're drowning between car pickup line and trying to work and trying to figure out what to feed your family and all the things. You just need someone to reach out and help you because you don't know how to ask for help. And I feel like that's what we've covered today. It's here's how the library is poised and ready to help.
Carli Patton: Thank you guys for what you're doing. Thank you so much for having us. Thank you. Yes, thank you.
