Last Thursday, January 19th, marked Dolly Parton's 77th birthday! Here at NPL, we decided to raise awareness about Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, as a gift to her on her special day! As the limited edition Dolly Parton's Imagination Library NPL card campaign came to a close (with nearly 3000 cards distributed!), our staff collaborated on a city-wide effort to register as many young children as possible for Dolly Parton's Imagination Library. 

In just one week, the NPL team engaged with 122 families to get children registered for Dolly Parton's Imagination Library.

The Dolly Parton's Imagination Library website reads: "In 1995, Dolly Parton launched an exciting new effort, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, to benefit the children of her home county in East Tennessee, USA. Dolly’s vision was to foster a love of reading among her county’s preschool children and their families by providing them with the gift of a specially selected book each month". What started off as a local effort has expanded to an international scale, all in under 30 years!

Programs like this one are vitally important for all young children, as they provide high-quality reading materials (in English AND Spanish) at absolutely no cost to parents and caregivers. Through my own work at Nashville Public Library's outreach program, Bringing Books to Life!, I have experienced firsthand the impact that a free book can have on families. Giving a child ownership of a book makes it feel that much more special to them, encouraging them to foster a love of reading from an early age. 

Although our week-long effort has come to a conclusion, it's never too late to register the young children in your life! Click here to learn more and sign up for Dolly Parton's Imagination Library! Here at Nashville Public Library, we offer thousands of books for children of all ages, all for free. You can also share in Dolly's dream to build early literacy by paying a visit to your local NPL branch!