The Library of Congress has paid tribute to Dolly Parton’s three-decade literacy campaign, the Imagination Library, following the country music star’s death on August 25 at the age of 80 after what was described as a brief battle with cancer, per huffpost.com.
While most tributes on social media focused on Parton’s music career, the Library of Congress highlighted her contribution to children’s literacy.
In a statement, the institution called her “a titan of children’s literacy” and noted that her Imagination Library programme had received multiple Library Literacy Awards. It also recalled Parton’s 2018 visit, when she donated the scheme’s 100 millionth book to the library’s collection and hosted a story time.
Parton founded Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in 1995 in Sevier County, Tennessee, in memory of her father, who was illiterate. The programme mails a free book each month to registered children from birth to age five, with the aim of encouraging early reading habits.
Over its 31-year run, the initiative has distributed more than 300 million books and grown into one of the world’s largest childhood literacy schemes. According to the foundation, 14% of US children under five currently receive a book through the programme.
Accepting the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy in 2022, Parton said her father “was a very smart man” despite being unable to read or write, adding that she had often wondered what he might have achieved with that ability. She described this as the inspiration behind the Imagination Library.