‘Auntie Dolly’: Dolly Parton’s legacy in Oxford

Earlier this summer, Caitlin Campbell, children’s librarian at Oxford Lane Library, led an ice cream-themed story time where she read the picture book “Ice Cream Face” by Heidi Woodward Sheffield for the 8-10 toddlers in attendance. When she held up the book, “more than half of them (said) ‘I have that! Oh, I love that! We have that book!’” Campbell recalled. 

She responded, “‘Is it cause Auntie Dolly sent it to you?’” 

Campbell always jokes with her own two kids that Auntie Dolly sends them new books. Of course, what she means is they received their book from being enrolled in Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library program. 

As stated on its website, “Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is a book gifting program that mails free, high-quality books to children from birth to age five, no matter their family’s income.” Since launching in 1995, the program has expanded worldwide to provide a book per month to each child enrolled. 

“It’s kind of a mysterious thing, but magical,” Campbell said. “But it is a very fabulous program, and I think much needed.” 

For the Butler County area, the program launched in Middletown in 2008, and Oxford joined when the program went statewide in November 2020. There are currently 14,584 kids in Butler County enrolled in the program through MidPointe Library System. 

“We try to talk about it as often as we can,” said Akiko Urayama, youth services coordinator for Lane Libraries. 

“Normally when I bring it up to people, they’re like ‘Oh yeah, we know,’” Campbell added.  “People just know about it now.” 

They both speculated most people have found the program through word of mouth. According to the 2026 Parent/Guardian Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library of Ohio Impact Survey that was sent out by the MidPointe Library Foundation, 34% of people first heard about the program through friends or family.

Another 10% responded that they heard about the program through hospital enrollment. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and First Lady Fran DeWine launched an initiative in 2025 to register newborns as part of the birth certificate paperwork.

“That’s a huge win for literacy in general,” Chris Corbitt, development director at MidPointe, said. 

If a child is enrolled at birth, they could receive up to 60 books by the time they turn five. Butler County is currently at 64% enrollment for the age group of the program, and Corbitt is hopeful that will increase to 80 or 90% with the automatic enrollment. 

Campbell and Urayama noted the importance of introducing the program in the hospital because of the importance of reading to a baby.

“That’s exactly when you start those traditions and those routines,” Campbell said. “The earlier the better.”

 Urayama emphasized the program doesn’t go against the library’s mission.  

“It’s under the big umbrella of early literacy,” she said. “We want people to have books. We want kids to have books, their own books.” 

Over 70% of families responded in MidPointe’s Impact Survey that the books have helped “a great deal” to create more reading time in their home. The survey also indicated improvements in reading interest, vocabulary, listening skills and more

“There have been studies that have indicated that involvement in the program will result in about a 15% increase in the kindergarten readiness assessment scores,” Cari Hillman, community engagement director at MidPointe, said. “So across the board we all know having books in the household is one of the number one indicators of success in school. So that’s what this program is about.” 

Over 90% of families responded that they feel early reading is “extremely important” for their children’s future, and 70% “strongly agree” that participation in the program is helping prepare for kindergarten. 

Corbitt said studies in other parts of Ohio found “over a third of low- to moderate-income households reported that most to nearly all the books in their homes were Imagination Library books.” 

“So if you think about that, if it wasn’t for that program, that section of the population – would that mean that they wouldn’t have any books until kindergarten hit? Quite possibly,” Corbitt said. 

“We had a couple folks leave comments that literally said … ‘We would not have books in our home if it weren’t for this program.’” Hillman added. “And that hit you right in your heart.” 

According to MidPointe’s Impact Survey, 80% of kids are either “very” or “extremely” excited when their book arrives. 

The books are mailed from the foundation in Tennessee directly to kids’ homes. Corbitt recalled having families tell him that their kids go out to the mailbox every day to look for their book. 

“For little kids, who are not used to getting things in the mail addressed to themselves, there is a total thrill of every month you get something in the mail that is mailed to you,” Campbell said. “I think that is a really special thing as a little kid.”

 The titles being sent out are high-quality ones – new, not just classics, relevant and diverse. 

“It’s all the magic of Dolly Parton,” Hillman joked. “She has a wonderful team at their foundation level. They have a really talented group of educators, librarians and professionals that select the books for each age group. And then they work with different publishers to get books, you know, high-quality books, at a very reasonable price.”  

The program is free for all families. 

“It sometimes makes it sound like it’s too good to be true, that there are so few barriers to entry for it,” Hillman said. 

The Imagination Library covers the cost of the administrative expenses, and local program partners are then responsible for the wholesale pricing of the books. Normally, that would be $2.60 per child per month; in Ohio, it is only $1.30 since the Ohio General Assembly invested to provide half to all local partners.

With over 14,500 enrolled in Butler County, the current monthly cost for the MidPointe Library system is almost $19,000. That amount is funded by donations, grants and sponsorships. 

“We are so fortunate to have so many people that are really dedicated to helping fund this program,” Hillman said. 

Following her death on Aug. 25, Parton’s family has asked that donations be made to the Imagination Library in lieu of flowers. 

“I have two young daughters and they refer to Dolly Parton as the book lady,” Hillman said. “They don’t know about her as a singer or an actress or any of the other amazing things she (has done). She is the book lady.”