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By Kris Harrell

The Dolly Parton Imagination Library is now available for children ages 0-5 years old in all 67 counties in Alabama, including Butler County. 

The literacy program was founded by Dolly Parton to gift books free of charge for children in the United States. After 30 years, the program has over three million children registered and a total of 264,181,752 books gifted.

“It creates a real community,” said Kevin Pearcey, director of the Greenville Public Library. “It crosses all types of ethnic, socioeconomic boundaries because the kids sit down, and if the teacher pulls out the book [the children] got from Dolly Parton, they’ll [say] ‘oh, I read that book.’ They’re used to sitting down, seeing a book and being exposed to books. It’s a real community too that these kids are able to be involved in and that’s important too. Community building and helping get these books in the hands of children and getting them exposed to books.” 

To help promote and improve literacy rates in Alabama, Gov. Kay Ivey and Alabama legislators pushed a statewide program by helping fund local program affiliate expenses for registering and paying for children in the program.

Due to support on a legislative level, all 67 counties in Alabama now have access to the program through non-profit organizations and libraries.

“We went active last February,” Pearcey said. “It’s a process; it takes a while to get all the paperwork and everything approved. We started the process in September the year before [2023]. 

“We’re all about putting books in the hands of children, because when you put books in the hands of children and they start getting them on a regular basis, they’ll want to come to the library and see more.” 

Currently, the Greenville library has around 320 children registered through them for the Dolly Parton Imagination Library. These young readers get nearly 3,840 books each year, books which are mainly funded by the state.

Funding is expected to end sometime in early 2026, and local affiliates will be tasked with paying around $2 per child per month. Pearcey states that there is a possibility of the state allocating more funds to continue to fund the program for local affiliates. 

The Greenville library has already begun planning to raise money to continue offering this program to children in Butler County. 

“Our big thing is we don’t want to start something and not be able to continue it,” Pearcey said. “Maybe the state will come through with the money, but our board is forward thinking, and we want to raise money to make this a self-sufficient program going forward for people in Butler County.”

To register your child for the Dolly Parton Imagination Library or to learn more about the program, please visit imaginationlibrary.com.