Onondaga County Children and Family Services Commissioner David Sutkowy and Syracuse Director of Administration Beth Rougeux announced proposed City and County support for expansion of the Imagination Library at the April 14 conference releasing the Onondaga Citizens League report on early childhood and school readiness. The Imagination Library, a program of the Literacy Coalition of Onondaga County, was initiated by Dolly Parton and operates in communities across the country. Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library provides the books, the local program provides the postage. Each month, an age-appropriate book is mailed free to enrolled children from birth to age 5. Currently, only children in three zip codes on the city’s north and west sides are eligible.  Dolly’s vision was to foster a love of reading among her county’s preschool children and their families by providing them with the gift of a specially selected book each month. Studies have shown Imagination Library drastically improves early childhood literacy for children enrolled in the program.  Expansion of the program was one of the recommendations of the OCL study, Early Childhood and School Readiness: Creating a Community Where All Children Thrive by Five”. The report is available on the OCL website, http://onondagacitizensleague.org.