Newstrack: Dolly Parton, Library Partnership Hits 50 Percent Enrollment In First Year

BackgroundLast year, the Cedar Rapids Public Library Foundation became an affiliate of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, a national initiative in which 1 million books a month are mailed to children up to age 5.Children of all income levels participate for free in hopes of boosting literacy as children get ready for kindergarten.When the affiliation in Cedar Rapids was announced in May 2018, library officials targeted 80 percent enrollment — 7,300 of the 9,100 eligible children in Cedar Rapids — by the program’s fourth year.