Dolly Parton was a well-known singer and performer who left a huge impact on the music industry. Alongside her illustrious music career, Parton devoted herself to philanthropy and created the Imagination Library, a non-profit organization that provides books to children under the age of five.
“Inspiring kids to love to read became my mission,” Parton said on the Imagination Library website. “In the beginning, my hope was simply to inspire the children in my home county but here we are today with a worldwide program that gives a book a month to well over 3 million children.”
Parton started the library in honor of her dad, Robert Lee Parton, whom she described as the smartest person she knew — however, he didn’t know how to read or write due to poverty. Not wanting children in Sevier County, Tennessee to have the same experience, Parton founded the Imagination Library to put more books in the hands of children under the age of five. Her library started locally and has expanded greatly over the 31 years since she founded the organization.
The library first launched in 1995, operating in Sevier County, Tennessee, Parton’s childhood hometown. By 2001, the library was replicating in 11 states across the country.
In 2011, the first Imagination Library opened in New York State in Allegany County. Today, New York has 102 local partners that oversee book distribution to children in the state.
Additionally, the library started expanding globally in 2006 into Canada. From there they moved into the United Kingdom, Australia and the Republic of Ireland.
Parton shared that children, unaware of her successful music career, dubbed her the “Book Lady.” Parton’s father said that the Imagination Library was the most important thing she ever did. He was as proud of the “Book Lady” moniker as he was of her music career.
How to Register Children
Parents can register their children online beginning the day they are born; the library will then send the child a high-quality, age-appropriate book every month until they turn five and graduate from the program. The month the child was born in determines the book they receive. A complete list of the current books being sent out can be found on the Imagination Library’s website.
The Library in Rochester
Monroe County has two Imagination Libraries: one that serves the zip codes in the City of Rochester and the other in East Rochester. Both are connected to the original library in Tennessee, as the Dollywood Foundation — which oversees the library — prints and ships the books to both locations. The local organization is responsible for advertising to parents and fundraising money to pay for each child’s books, which cost approximately $32 a year.
Recently, the City of Rochester’s Imagination Library partnered with United Ways, and they have plans to expand to all of Monroe County. The library in East Rochester will continue to operate independently.
Michael Bloch, a Rochester resident and an RIT alum, was responsible for the opening of the library in East Rochester in 2024.
Bloch was inspired to start his own Imagination Library after hearing Dr. Matt Present, the founder of the City of Rochester’s Imagination Library, discuss his journeyon WXXI. After hearing Present’s talk, Bloch reached out to him, leading to a partnership that led him to establish the East Rochester library.
Bloch chose East Rochester because it is a small, close-knit community, so word of the library would spread fast. When the program began, just 33 kids were involved; now, that number has grown to 202 active participants, with 79 children having graduated from the program.
Each library has had the opportunity to request a signed Dolly Parton object each year to sell for fundraising purposes. Bloch requested a signed book in 2025 and a signed photo this year. Following her passing, he thought it was the best time to auction both pieces of memorabilia and raise money for the library. Both received bids but were ultimately sold at the buy-now price of $500 within a few days of the auction starting.
Bloch also talked about the attention the library has gotten in the weeks following her passing.
“A lot of people learned about it that didn’t know about it. We got a few extra kids that registered in the last week or so, more than normal, and we got some donations too from individuals,” Bloch said.
Research Study Results
The library has four goals for young readers: to close literary gaps, strengthen home literacy environments, inspire reading and build positive reading habits. A study was conducted across five countries with Imagination Libraries to measure the effect of receiving books on children’s learning outcomes. Researchers surveyed more than 86,000 caregivers and compared children who received books on a monthly basis to their counterparts who didn’t receive the books.
The study only reaffirmed the four goals of the organization. After around ten books, children were four times more likely to show stronger literary skills. The kids became nine times more likely to be interested in reading.
Ultimately, the Imagination Library is a great resource for parents to cultivate a child’s imagination and literacy skills. Dolly Parton took a simple idea of providing books for children and transformed it into an international organization devoted to improving the literacy skills of kids everywhere.
