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Dolly Parton's Imagination Library

https://imaginationlibrary.com/
527jumploops | | 90 | HN
arjie | parent | next
My daughter receives books through this program and I was curious how it was sustained at a $2.5/book wholesale cost.

Interestingly, the coordinating body that selects books, facilitates distribution, and negotiates wholesale pricing is the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, but per-book funding is actually entirely through local charities and so on. This means that where charities are unable to act as partners, children will not receive books, but it also means that the program can operate by growing and shrinking as local support (including from state and local government grants) comes online and goes offline while keeping the overhead for local partners low.

Dolly Parton came up with the initial local structure for her region in Tennessee and David Dotson of Dollywood scaled the operation using this decentralized model. Very impressive structure that makes this sustainable.

Here’s the interview where he talks about it: https://www.endbookdeserts.com/dolly-parton-imagination-libr...

conductr | parent | next
Regarding cost per unit. I think the publisher likes this type of partner because they can really get their initial order volume up high without much risk. This allows them to have a super low cost per unit, maximizing profit, from the start.
ssttoo | root | parent | next
Yup, and the “industry standard” wholesale discount publishers give to e.g. bookstores is usually 55%
TuxedoBuddy | root | parent
That seems like an incredible discount. Can I assume then that bookstores are competing against each other via very minute (perhaps one or two dollar) price discounts while still maintaining a high profit margin?
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what | root | parent
> initial order volume

None of the books you get through this program are new releases. But they are printed special for imagination library.

runarberg | parent | next
This structure is (I would argue) a form of mutual aid. Alcoholics Anonymous famously operates under a similar structure. Mutual aid is very popular among Anarchists and is one of the most fundamental tactics of Anarchism, Food not Bombs probably being the most famous mutual aid movements that is explicitly Anarchists.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_aid

engineer_22 | root | parent
Dolly Parton was famous for her embrace of anarchist sympathies.
graywh | parent | next
some governments provide funding -- Tennessee has been covering half the costs statewide
JeremyNT | parent
Really glad to see this as the top comment.

Parton did a lot of very nice things and was a great contributor to society in good and decent ways that many of her wealth peers totally fail.

But there has since her passing been an element of myth and folklore that has elevated those accomplishments beyond reality.

Her library is a great idea and her support was notable, but the funding in large part comes from government grants and other donors.

To a large degree, the library program is also your tax dollars at work.

mshroyer | root | parent | next
Funding is easy to get once you have an impressive and demonstrably good program. But without Dolly's work (and yes, the work of people she brought on to carry out her vision), none of this program would currently exist.
genxy | root | parent | next
Money is fuel, but it needs an engine. Dolly designed and built the engine.
what | root | parent
All of the books I’ve received through this program have been paid for by the local library and other city funds.

I can also walk into the library and there will be a shelf of free childrens books. Not used, brand new. Stacks of them to take home and keep.

The engine already existed, our public library system.

overfeed | root | parent
> The engine already existed, our public library system

How good one's library is depends on how well-off the operating local government is. The Imagination Library is more egalitarian because it's often funded at county and state-level, so kids with underfunded libraries get the same level of access as other kids from wealthier zip codes

cactusplant7374 | root | parent
Perhaps you can expand on why you think that is a bad idea.
JeremyNT | root | parent
I don't! I think it was a great idea. But I think people commonly misunderstand the way the program operates, assuming Parton herself was funding it, and I'm glad somebody highlighted its structure.
peterleiser | parent | next
In Tennessee hospitals a nurse, staff member, or authorized volunteer will swing by your room in the mother-baby unit and sign you up. Then you start receiving free books by mail each month until age 5. An amazing program by an amazing person!
brokenmouse | parent | next
I don't need Imagination Library. We are very well off for now, however, someone signed us up for it and I was pissed cause we can buy all this and not take away from someone who needs it. Then we received our first book. My 3 year old loves going to the mail with me and if there's a book, it makes him so happy he opens it and sits in his chair and just looks at it and asks for it to be read to him. He doesn't know about bank accounts or anything, all he cares about is books, his cozy (blanket), Buzz, and Elmo. We decided to keep it and donate to it and I think more people in our position should have services like this to hopefully ground them in a way you forget only by reminding by the smile and laughter of your child, then donate to them.
talon8635 | parent | next
I do not believe it’s a lottery system. Anyone who signs up gets them. So you are not taking that book from someone else.
what | parent
Look at the label on it and it will tell you who paid for the book. It’s likely your local library and other city/county programs. Donate to them instead.
sarchertech | parent | next
My 5 year old just got his last imagination library book. It showed up right after Dolly passed away.

There was a letter from Dolly to him that ended “I will always love you”. Made my wife tear up.

bigiain | parent | next
I'd like to hope that at least for the majority of children who age out of the Imagination Library, both the child and the parents have "become people who read" and most likely the child gets a membership to their local library.

I remember my family getting taken to our local library every couple of weeks to return and then borrow books while I was in infants school. That made me 9 or 10 years old at the very oldest, and my youngest sister would have been at most 5 or 6 years old. So I'm pretty sure aging out of the Imagination Library is a pretty reasonable time to start that child using a "real" library, and start having several books a month available for free that way.

(I fully acknowledge the immense privilege I had having parents who understood and supported the importance of reading and education. I remember being extremely bored in kindergarten - 4 or 5 years old - and getting told to sit in the back with a few other kids who could read already and we'd read books while most of the other kids were being taught to read.)

sarchertech | root | parent
My wife wasn’t sad because he was no longer getting free books.
rboyd | parent
It really hits you in the feels. You get so used to receiving them and then all of a sudden it's a bit of a gut check and it reminds you your baby is growing up so fast. Plus the reminder of Dolly's kindness. Unexpected in what was just a simple trip to the mailbox.
dead_hn_theory | parent | next
We should be more ambitious with the people we build.
eddieroger | parent | next
We should celebrate people like Dolly and not people unworthy of celebration or celebrity.
argentinian | root | parent | next
Yes, it would be nice if people who make the world a better place would receive more attention and appreciation.
tclancy | root | parent
That's so hard though. I feel like she was a 1 in 1 like a lot of great people. Trying to draw a trend line feels impossible. Like ...

  - amazing voice
  - amazing songwriter
  - talented actress
  - an icon for attractiveness in the 80s who was self-effacing about it
  - embraced her fans of all kinds (imagine someone born when she was being so comfortable with people of all races and stripes)
  - just a permanently positive force
Not a lot of people in my lifetime (1975-present) have _no one_ bad-mouthing them. And I am sure there's someone out there bad-mouthing Dolly, but c'mon.
ManuelKiessling | root | parent | next
Well, the positive traits you listed are certainly true, but let’s face it: she was also very intelligent and had a self-deprecating sense of humor, so there’s that.
tclancy | root | parent
Oh I left super smart out, but the self deprecating I felt like I got with self-effacing ("It takes a lot of money to look this cheap" is Mae West level gag writing).
eddieroger | root | parent
Yeah she checked a lot of boxes. But maybe the room made by no longer elevating the unworthy would shine a light on those who do.
PLenz | parent
Exactly, noblesse oblige
turtleburger | parent | next
These books are really nice quality. Anyone who has children should absolutely look into this. The content is thoughtful and diverse.
bredren | parent
Many of the stories are good. The library also selects books that offer some stories reflecting diverse cultures.

Growing up in the 80s everything is white folks or animals but almost always it is about a boy or boys.

I think the baby books are still board books. Cordoroy’s Shapes is part of what I remember about our first’s earliest years. Reading it over and over. We even did a first birthday theme for it. My mom made triangle tarts.

After that they are floppy picture books. I suppose at this scale is is probably both economical and reflects some of the material involved.

That is just fine, though it’s just not the same as holding a hardcover.

Our kids don’t care about that, though. It’s more about the time and talking about the pictures and how well we ham it up.

shermantanktop | root | parent | next
Hamming it up is an overlooked parental contribution to reading. Lay it on thick! Do all the voices, act like you don’t know what’s on the next page, be shocked and surprised. Kids love it.
NetMageSCW | root | parent
Even in the 70s when I was 8 or older I seem to remember plenty of series with girl protagonists like Nancy Drew or the Bobbsey Twins or The Dana Girls or Trixie Belden or even SF like Telzey Amberdon or even The Rolling Stones or Podkayne of Mars.

And, of course, there was the Oz books.

tisdadd | root | parent
This reads like a good portion of books I say need to be grabbed when I see them at sales for our family library. I know some people will disagree, but I feel as though general children's and young adult aimed literature has been harder to find that is both clean and well written.

It is interesting to me that a good story, poorly written, can be souch harder to get though than a well written boring story that just flows well.

bengotow | parent | next
I have a two year old and have been receiving Imagination Library books monthly since he was born. This is a really wonderful non-profit. It's easy to sign up, the books show up in your mailbox, and each one has a page written by an educator describing how to read it to your child. (Point out the dog, what noise does a dog make? How does the boy feel at the end? etc) Highly recommend!
talon8635 | parent | next
We use it and my son always screen “Dolly!” When we get to her picture in the back jacket. Wonderful service from one of the best Americans to have ever lived.

For jewish themed books, PJ Library is a similar good service

Computer0 | parent
Unfortunately they support the existence of the state of Israel, so due to matters of conscience my wife and I had to skip PJ.
msbertenthal | root | parent | next
My oldest has had PJ library for 9 years. 95% of those books have had nothing to do with Israel.

I’m a bit incredulous of your justification - Do you also not associate with Jews that believe that Israel should exist?

talon8635 | root | parent
Sigh. I was really hoping the topic of children’s books would be exempt from the flame war. Silly me.
TheAtomic | parent | next
We need more Dolly Partons.
amelius | parent | next
Yes, and we need them also in places like CEO of AI company, CEO of space company, CEO of twitter-style communications company, ...
xgulfie | root | parent
Someone like Parton wouldnt take those positions
amelius | root | parent
Probably because VCs don't want that ...
runarberg | parent | next
What Dolly was doing here is a form of mutual aid, a practice of sharing skills, knowledge, food, or material goods with your community. I encourage everyone to participate in mutual aid organizations if you are able.

The world needs more Dolly Partons, that is for sure. But lucky for us, the world has many billions of people who are willing and able to participate in the sort of mutual aid that Dolly championed.

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LinaLauneBaer | parent | next
Honest question and maybe it's because I grew up without books… What values do books have if you cannot read? I started to learn how to read at 6. Are those picture only books?
nkrisc | parent | next
One of the best ways to help children learn to read is to read to them, a lot.

That alone won’t teach them to read, but it will help them a lot as they work through learning.

My kids have been “learning” to read since they were born and my oldest started reading on his own at age 4-5. I didn’t push him to read at all, he surprised me when he started telling me what the signs along the road said.

My younger hasn’t taken to it quite as fast but he’s right where he should be for his age, but we read at least three books to him every day at bedtime. I still read to my older one every day (we’ve read LotR twice), even though he’s plenty capable on his own.

devilbunny | root | parent
> That alone won’t teach them to read

Oh yes it can. It won’t teach phonics, which is a very valuable skill especially in English, but my biggest struggle with phonics was that I could already read the words they were trying to use to teach us how to sound things out. Kids vary but some will already be picking up written words by 2-3 and self-guided by 5-6. Reading the same book every night is tedious to parents but really lets the kids connect shapes on paper to language.

mahogany | parent | next
No they are not picture-only books. They have simple stories, which are for parents to read to their children. Reading stories to children before they can read is a very, very old tradition :) (think fairy tales)

(edit - you've gotten several responses but I will say that you are correct that this sort of thing does not happen in all households; that's one reason this program is great, because it encourages this behavior)

jeremymcanally | parent | next
Not to be snarky, yes picture books, but also, adults do often read books to children.
LinaLauneBaer | root | parent
My parents never did. Now I wish they did.
talon8635 | root | parent
Well here’s the problem. Honestly your question sounded insane to me and worthy of ridicule, and now I just feel sad. I’m sorry they didn’t do that for you :(
starkparker | parent | next
Someone, typically a parent of guardian, reads them to you while showing you the words. After reading the story, they might go back and walk you through each word, how it's said, and its meaning.

Not only do a lot of kids learn like this, but for instance the little Polish that I know how to speak and read I learned like this as an adult with the help of a native speaker.

LinaLauneBaer | root | parent
Oh wow. My parents never did this. I thought its something they only do in the movies…
kstrauser | root | parent
That kinda breaks my heart. I loved my kids curled up in my lap while I read them their favorite stories. I wish every parent and child had that shared experience, and I'm truly sorry you didn't.

If it comes to pass that you have little ones of your own, please don't let that be something your kids only see in the movies. Make that your own new family tradition.

cr125rider | parent | next
Are you implying there’s a chicken-and-egg problem with books? How are you supposed to learn how to read without written material?
LinaLauneBaer | root | parent
No. I am not implying a chicken and egg problem. If you generally start to learn how to read with 6 what would do get from a book between the age 0-5 when you cannot read? In another thread someone explained that usually parents "read" the book to the child - child answered my question. My parents never read books to me so I did not know this was common.
SwellJoe | root | parent | next
There's no reason to wait until a child is six to teach them to read. I was reading much earlier, before formal schooling, because my parents were readers and read to me regularly. I had a tremendous enthusiasm for books because books were important to my parents.

Plenty of research indicates reading to kids from a very young age improves their education outcomes later in life.

I'm sorry your parents didn't know to do that. Hopefully now that you know, you'll read to your kids (if/when you have any).

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NetMageSCW | root | parent
I don’t remember my father teaching me to read but he was an avid reader and I was reading well before six. When I in the third grade I won the library summer reading contest - I read all my books and all my sister’s books (she was in first grade) - I read like 60 books, my sister 20 and the high school winner ten :) We moved and had a bookmobile at our new location and I would get a paper grocery bag of books every week.
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hudo | parent | next
Getting books for almost 2 years now, we're so grateful to Dolly! Some very excellent books our child totally loves!
twotwotwo | parent | next
We weren't signed up but as a measure of the scale of this we still wound up with a couple of Imagination Library books through book exchanges or buying used online -- i.e. there are enough of these 300M books floating around that if you have a kid there's a good chance you run into them.

I like the sibling comment "We should be more ambitious with the people we build." -- there are so many great things people with some means can be doing!

afthonos | parent | next
We shall never look upon her like again.

—Sent from Dollywood

brianwawok | parent
Hah I’m in Dollywood right now randomly
Vsolar | parent | next
Getting age-appropriate books for your kid on a regular schedule is amazing. If you've got young kids (and you're in the US) get on it!
someothherguyy | parent | next
United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and Ireland
nkoren | parent
We get them where I am in the UK, too.

Bless Dolly, she was amazing!

labrador | parent | next
Dolly Parton was a beautiful spirit and my life was measurably improved by reading as a child so I donated $50 on her death. It's not much but I'm retired on a fixed income. I had to do something.
fooblaster | parent | next
I've been reading these books to my kids for the last year and a half. Such a wonderful gift to so many children.
bushbaba | parent | next
Because of Dolly, other billionaires have stepped up to fund similar free books per month programs. She had a truly outsized impact.
Projectiboga | parent | next
If you know of any kids under the age of six get them signed up. The books come addressed in their name monthly.
stevage | parent | next
Which "today's news" are you referring to?
talon8635 | parent
I was confused by this too. Anyone?
trollbridge | parent | next
PJ Library has a similar program for age 0-8. (I contacted them and they’re fine with non-Jewish families participating, even though it’s aimed at Jewish families and their children.)
ChrisArchitect | parent | next
Related on the legend RIP and some talk about the Library:

Dolly Parton has died

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49438052

chaostheory | parent | next
Dolly Parton is the one of the few people and ideas that both polarized sides still fiercely agree on, and it says a lot given the times. Her book program and other charitable work is a great legacy.
excalibur | parent | next
Today's news being....
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kQq9oHeAz6wLLS | parent | next
If you like coffee, Dolly has a line via Community Coffee (which makes great coffee) called Cup of Ambition, and a portion of each sale goes to the Imagination Library.

https://www.communitycoffee.com/pages/dolly-partons-cup-of-a...

mberning | parent | next
My son was in this program and got some wonderful books. When he aged out he got a nice note encouraging him to keep learning. Great program. Our current billionaire class could learn a lot.
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