The Library of Congress paid tribute to Dolly Parton on 25 August 2026, hours after the country music icon died aged 80, praising her as a "titan of children's literacy" for her work founding the Imagination Library. The programme, which distributes free books to young children regardless of family income, has earned multiple Library Literacy Awards and holds particular significance for the institution, which received the scheme's 100 millionth book from Parton herself in 2018.

Parton launched the Imagination Library in 1995 in her home county of Sevier, Tennessee, providing free books to children up to age five before it expanded across the United States and later to Canada, the UK, Ireland and Australia, mailing around two million books globally each month by 2022. She started the charity in memory of her father, who never learned to read or write. Her death, announced by her nephew Bryan Seaver, was later attributed to a brief battle with cancer, prompting tributes from musicians including Paul McCartney, Elton John and Taylor Swift, as well as an order from President Trump to fly US flags at half-staff.