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On staying relevant in today's world...
Imagination Library
It is said that he was a man of considerable natural intelligence. He had the misfortune to be born in a time and place when schooling was not open to him. For this reason he never learned to read and write. His children, though they grew up in poverty, did have the chance to acquire a modicum of education. One of them went on to become a well-known and highly successful country singer.
The singer was Dolly Parton. She never forgot her origins in poverty-stricken Sevier County, Tennessee. The children in Sevier County all now had the chance to go to school. But many went with no preparation or support from their families. They had grown up in households where books were virtually unknown. It was entirely possible for a child to reach Kindergarten having never so much as seen a book. Such children usually went into schools without even the basic awareness of print and words that those from more fortunate households have. In effect they went into school already behind before they had even truly begun. Most remained behind from that time on.
Dolly Parton had become aware of this. She knew that studies indicated that early exposure to reading was the most reliable predictor of later school success. If the children in her home county were being set up to fail by the shortcomings of their early childhood, then she decided she should do something about it.
That something was Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. Parents could sign up children under the age of five to receive one book per month per child, mailed directly to the child’s home. The books were not just any random books. They constituted a carefully thought-out preschool syllabus designed by actual educators with an eye toward introducing children to shapes, letters, words, and eventually beginning reading at appropriate stages of development. At the same time they included such children’s classics as The Little Engine That Could and Goodnight Moon.
From its beginning in Sevier County in the 1990s the Imagination Library program spread across the state, and then to other states. It is run through local advocates, usually at the county level. These county-level efforts raise funds to sponsor children at $25 per child per year. Dolly Parton’s Dollywood Foundation covers all administrative expenses. With hundreds of thousands now enrolled, the foundation is able to broker bulk deals with publishers to provide the books at a low cost. A child signed up at birth for Imagination Library will receive a total of 60 books with a retail value of well over $400—for a cost to sponsors of only $125.
Growing evidence suggests that the idea actually works. Several studies have found that areas with a high rate of participation in Imagination Library register significant increases in measures of school achievement among young children. This suggests that Imagination Library is a cost-effective way of improving school outcomes in places that need improvement.
I had never heard of Imagination Library until I saw a presentation about it at a state library conference two years ago. It seemed like an offer too good to be true. Our town and county, though hardly the worst-off around, have disturbingly high rates of poverty and low rates of school achievement. It is something that has concerned many of us in the area for a long time. I went home convinced that Imagination Library was something that we needed.
Others back home agreed. We got to work finding community partners and raising funds. I spoke with people elsewhere in the state who were already running Imagination Library programs, and wrote a grant for seed money. Eventually we had enough sponsorship commitment to get started.
We had expected X number of children in the first year. Thanks to some enthusiastic promotion we signed up over half again that many. This was a great result—and it also greatly increased our financial commitment. I got to work soliciting funds at every community meeting I spoke to. I and others involved with our Imagination Library are still at it now. And the new applications continue to come in.
Recently I attended a meeting of Imagination Library representatives from all over the state. They included teachers, Rotarians, librarians, United Way workers, and more. We shared stories about our projects, our fundraising experiences and methods, and our outcomes.
One representative told of a failing school district where the number of third-graders reading at or above grade level increased from 33% to 88% in five years after a strong push to sign up area preschoolers for Imagination Library. Another spoke of convincing major local employers to sponsor eligible children of employees. This freed money raised from other sources to sponsor other children. I took lots of notes.
Since our local Imagination Library effort is still in its early stages—it typically takes several years to work up to a truly high rate of local participation—there is no way of knowing yet whether it will help our schools and students. I am optimistic that it will, especially in conjunction with other efforts now in the works to improve local school outcomes. We certainly need it. Meanwhile we are exploring new potential sources of funding suggested by what others have been doing in other counties. We have a lot of fundraising to go if we are to create a sustainable program covering all local preschoolers.
While we and hundreds of other Imagination Library efforts are trying to do our part, Dolly Parton continues to do hers. Her Dollywood Foundation now spends a reported $20 million a year on Imagination Library. As the program grows, that expense will grow as well. Even someone as wealthy and well-known as Dolly Parton has her work cut out for her keeping an operation of that size going.
At an interview Dolly Parton once said that her singing and other reasons for notoriety were not what she wanted people to remember her for. She most hoped to be remembered as “the book lady.” A lot of librarians understand how she feels.
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The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls who, when he found an especially costly one, sold everything he had to buy it.
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