Keeping with our efforts to find positive stories upon which to end the week, last month marked an amazing accomplishment from an unlikely source. In 1995, country music legend Dolly Parton launched her “Imagination Library,” a program which at the time was meant to help foster a love of reading in the children in her native East Tennessee. 23 years later, Parton’s group gave away its 100 Millionth book, this one to the Library of Congress. This is an astounding achievement in philanthropy, and growing reason why Parton is increasingly as much known as the “Book Lady” as she is for her musical creations and accomplishments.
In the video below, Dolly tells the story of the program to Carla Hayden, Librarian of Congress, and reads her own children’s book, based on her song, Coat of Many Colors. This is the first installment of the Library of Congress’ new streaming Imagination Library Story Time program.
David Crotty is a Senior Consultant at Clarke & Esposito, a boutique management consulting firm focused on strategic issues related to professional and academic publishing and information services. Previously, David was the Editorial Director, Journals Policy for Oxford University Press. He oversaw journal policy across OUP’s journals program, drove technological innovation, and served as an information officer. David acquired and managed a suite of research society-owned journals with OUP, and before that was the Executive Editor for Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, where he created and edited new science books and journals, along with serving as a journal Editor-in-Chief. He has served on the Board of Directors for the STM Association, the Society for Scholarly Publishing and CHOR, Inc., as well as The AAP-PSP Executive Council. David received his PhD in Genetics from Columbia University and did developmental neuroscience research at Caltech before moving from the bench to publishing.
