The first official celebration will take place on 25 September, marking the growth of a locally funded reading programme that sends a book each month to children aged two to five.
Renfrewshire will hold its first official Dolly Parton Day on Friday 25 September, after the Dollywood Foundation UK approved an annual celebration of the singer’s Imagination Library programme.
The date will be used to promote early reading and recognise a scheme that has now distributed more than 230,000 books to young children across Renfrewshire.
Provost Lorraine Cameron proposed the celebration at a meeting of Renfrewshire Council. The authority says nurseries, childminders and families will be encouraged to mark the day through reading and activities connected with the programme.
The announcement follows five years of expansion in Renfrewshire, which became the first Scottish local authority to offer Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library universally to children aged between two and five.
Children qualify if they live in Renfrewshire or attend a nursery within the council area. Once registered, they receive an age-appropriate book addressed to them each month, delivered at no cost to the family.
More than 25 Renfrewshire nurseries and childminders have registered every eligible child in their care.
Provost Cameron said the programme had helped children develop an interest in stories while encouraging parents and carers to read with them.
“Passing the 230,000 books milestone is a significant achievement,” she said.
“This programme sets children up for a lifelong love of reading. We’ve seen the positive impact it has on children’s learning. That’s why we made the commitment to permanently fund the programme.”
From a pilot to a permanent council service
Dolly Parton established the original Imagination Library in 1995 in Sevier County, Tennessee, where she grew up. She has said the programme was inspired by her father, Robert Lee Parton, who could not read or write.
The scheme began by providing books to local children before expanding through partnerships with councils, charities, businesses and community organisations.
It launched in the UK in 2007, with the first books distributed the following year. The programme now operates through locally funded partnerships in the UK, United States, Canada, Australia and the Republic of Ireland.
The Dollywood Foundation provides much of the programme’s central infrastructure, including book selection, wholesale purchasing and administration of its registration system. Local partners enrol children and secure the money needed to pay for books, packing and postage.
The current estimated cost is approximately £26 a child each year for 12 books.
Renfrewshire began its authority-wide programme in March 2021 after an earlier pilot. Its 2021–22 budget allocated £200,000 to extend the scheme to all children aged two to five in the council area.
By June 2025, the council said more than 150,000 books had been distributed. The latest total of more than 230,000 means at least another 80,000 books were issued over the following year.
The programme was initially supported through annual budget decisions. Councillors made the funding permanent in March 2025, committing £100,000 a year to continue monthly deliveries.
Where the Imagination Library operates in Scotland
The Imagination Library is available in Scotland, but it is not yet a universal national service for every child.
Renfrewshire remains the first Scottish council to make it available throughout the authority to all children aged two to five, regardless of family income or circumstances.
Other Scottish programmes operate within smaller geographical areas or for particular groups of children.
In Dundee, for example, a partnership centred on Charleston Community Library has provided the scheme in the Lochee area. The Dollywood Foundation says the local project was developed partly in response to high child-poverty levels and has helped connect families with library services.
There is also a separately funded national arrangement for care-experienced children. The Scottish Government provides £73,000 a year to the Dollywood Foundation to deliver one book each month to care-experienced children from birth until age five.
Government figures show that funding remained at £73,000 annually from 2021–22 to 2025–26, amounting to £365,000 over five years.
The programme’s earlier reporting said its initiative for looked-after children had reached 26 of Scotland’s local authorities. That does not mean every child in those areas receives the books; eligibility under that strand is connected to care experience.
Families elsewhere in Scotland must check the Imagination Library’s postcode service to establish whether a local programme operates in their area. Coverage depends upon a council, charity, library or another partner securing sustainable funding.
The Dollywood Foundation says its long-term ambition is for every child under five in Scotland to have access, but that remains an aspiration rather than a funded national commitment.
Scotland already has a separate universal book-gifting system through the Scottish Book Trust’s Bookbug programme, funded by the Scottish Government. Bookbug provides free book bags at different stages between birth and age five and supports song and story sessions in libraries and community venues.
The Imagination Library differs by posting an individually addressed book to an enrolled child every month.
Evidence and limits of the programme
Supporters argue that repeated access to books can strengthen vocabulary, encourage shared reading and help children become familiar with stories before they enter school.
The Dollywood Foundation’s 2024 UK annual report said more than 100 early-years professionals in Renfrewshire reported stronger family engagement and a greater emphasis on reading for pleasure after taking part.
Access to books is one part of early language development. The effect also depends upon whether adults have the time, confidence and support to read with children, and whether families facing poverty, additional support needs or language barriers can participate fully.
For Dolly Parton’s 80th birthday earlier this year, nurseries held reading sessions, music events, a hoedown, a silent disco and activities based on her song Coat of Many Colours.
Helena Barrett-Duncan, the Dollywood Foundation’s regional director for Scotland, described Renfrewshire as an example of what could be achieved when a community supported early-years reading.
“It has become a beacon for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in Scotland, inspiring other local authorities to follow its lead,” she said.
Renfrewshire’s first Dolly Parton Day will take place on Friday 25 September 2026. Families living in the area, or whose children attend a Renfrewshire nursery, can apply through the council’s registration service.
Sources
Renfrewshire Council — Renfrewshire’s Dolly Parton Day celebration approved as book milestone reached
https://www.renfrewshire.gov.uk/news/2026/renfrewshires-dolly-parton-day-celebration-approved-book-milestone-reached
Renfrewshire Council — Council budget 2021 to 2022
https://www1.renfrewshire.gov.uk/article/11333/Council-budget-2021-to-2022
Renfrewshire Council — Council budget 2025 to 2026
https://www.renfrewshire.gov.uk/council-and-elections/budget-and-performance/council-budget/council-budget-2025-2026
Renfrewshire Council — Education Standards and Quality Report 2025
https://www1.renfrewshire.gov.uk/media/17611/Education-Standards-and-Quality-Report-2025/pdf/Renfrewshires_Education_Standards_and_Quality_Report_Sep_2025.pdf
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library — Scotland
https://imaginationlibrary.com/scotland/
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library — United Kingdom
https://imaginationlibrary.com/UK/
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library — Find My Programme
https://imaginationlibrary.com/uk/find-my-programme/
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library — 2024 UK Annual Report
https://imaginationlibrary.com/the-dollywood-foundation-uk-releases-2024-annual-report/
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library — How the programme is helping UK public libraries
https://imaginationlibrary.com/how-dolly-partons-imagination-library-is-helping-uk-public-libraries-thrive/
Scottish Government — Spending on books for children and teenagers: FOI response
https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202500485454/
