New Mexico has established a statewide Imagination Library program, which will receive an additional $1 million in funding this year. The program provides free books to children from birth to age 5 across the state.

More than 30,000 children in New Mexico currently receive books through the Imagination Library, a nonprofit initiative founded by Dolly Parton. The program originated in Tennessee in 1995, motivated by Parton's experience with her father, who could not read or write.

Bayard Public Library in Grant County became the first Imagination Library affiliate in New Mexico in 2010. Nancy Stephens, director of the program for New Mexico and Grant County, said in a podcast interview: "This is a way of putting books into kids' hands where the parents don't have to research what book to buy. They don't have to pay for them. They just have to open their mailbox."

A panel with the Dollywood Foundation selects the books distributed, ensuring children born in the same year receive identical books. Stephens said, "$30 covers 12 books and their postage." The New Mexico Early Childhood Education and Care Department reimburses local Imagination Library partners for 80% of these costs.

Local affiliates secure funding, register children, and promote the program. New Mexico affiliates can choose between a bilingual track, where all books are bilingual, or a track where an occasional book is bilingual. Stephens said, "Sometimes, we think that families go to the library more than they do, but we've done surveys that show more than 50% of families haven't visited the library in a year." Data indicates 80% of fourth graders in New Mexico are not proficient in reading.