08/26/2026
There is a heaviness in the library community tonight as we think about the loss of Dolly Parton and the incredible legacy she has created through the Dolly Parton Imagination Library. 💔📚
For so many libraries, including ours, Dolly’s Imagination Library has been about so much more than receiving a free book in the mail. It has been about putting a book into a child’s hands and telling them, “You matter. Your imagination matters. Your future matters.”
The Imagination Library helps build a love of reading from the very beginning. Those books become bedtime stories, favorite characters, treasured memories, and sometimes the very first step toward a lifelong relationship with books and libraries.
As a library, we see every day how important early literacy is. A child who grows up surrounded by books is being given more than words on a page—they are being given opportunities to learn, dream, explore, ask questions, and imagine possibilities far beyond their little corner of the world. ❤️
Dolly has always understood something incredibly important: you don’t have to wait until a child can read to make them a reader. You start by giving them books. You read together. You make reading special. You let them fall in love with stories.
We are incredibly grateful for the impact the Imagination Library has had on children and families in our community and across the country. Dolly’s legacy will live on in the millions of little hands that have held those books and the countless imaginations that have been sparked because of them. 📖✨
