One of the current Lincoln Southwest Library themes is, “Southwest Unified” and “Inclusivity Matter.” The theme was put up in early April and will be taken down in mid May. 

“Southwest is doing such a good job of promoting inclusion and promoting their uniform of our unified programs,” media secretary Ms. Michelle Winklepleck said. “I wanted to promote our unified programs and also use it as an opportunity to display the books that we have to talk about different learning disabilities that talk about inclusion of students.”

The librarians change the theme of the library every month. The themes are based on the holidays during the month, sports of the season and national themes of the year.

“It’s a great theme to use to include everyone in the school,” media secretary Shannon Steppat said. “This theme shows what they could do to help out with, where they can volunteer and maybe they didn’t know where they could help.”

At LSW, there are 12 soon to be 13 unified activities that students can volunteer and help with. Unified clubs and classes that LSW have are Inclusive Cheer, Inclusive Swim, Inclusive Yearbook, Special Olympics, Unified Book Club, Unified Bowling, Unified Choir, Unified Club, Unified Council, Unified P.E., Unified Track and Field and soon to be Inclusive Newspaper.

“It prompts inclusion and that just because somebody might have a disability it doesn’t mean that they are any different from anyone else,” Winklepleck said. “They should not be treated any differently and that they can do anything that anybody else can do.”

The books in the Library set up with the Southwest Unified theme are “Temple Grandin,” “In A Different Key,” “Special Siblings,” “Riding The Bus With My Sister,” “One Shot,” “Disability Visibility” and “Accident of the dog in the Night-Time.”

“The reason we do themed displays is to encourage people to come into the library and check out books,” Winklepleck said. “Themes help make aware of the different issues, promote awareness and hopefully create a love for reading.”

During the beginning of May the library themes will change to Asian Heritage Month and Star Wars for “May the fourth be with you.”