Every baby born at Tamworth hospital is being signed up to a global initiative to inspire a lifelong love of reading in an Australian first.
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Dolly Parton's Imagination Library (DPIL) has been a huge success during its first 12 months here, Global CEO of the program David Dotson said.
He visited the city library from the United States on Friday as part of a national tour.
The program gifts children a free book every month from birth to five years of age.
Tamworth is the first of around 80 Australian locations to have 100 per cent of newborns from the local hospital in 2019 enrolled, just less than 700.
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"Tamworth brings this very unique perspective of a whole community embracing a program and putting it to work, which is music to our ears," he said.
"If we could replicate what's happening in Tamworth across the country, all our dreams would come true.
"The city library holds a weekly reading session aimed at bringing children together...to celebrate the magic of books," Mr Dotson said.
The young age of the children involved means the impacts of the city library program are yet to be shown, but Mr Dotson said he expects literacy levels to improve.
"When you put those fundamentals in place then the chances for academic success, no matter how you define it, are greatly enhanced," he said.
Across 80 locations in Australia, every registered child receives Mem Fox's Koala Lou as their first book.
Police and crime reporter at the Newcastle Herald.
Police and crime reporter at the Newcastle Herald.
