08/28/2026
Back when the iCube was the BusinessMedia Center, our goal was, and still is, to help spread the use of emerging business technology through rural Tennessee by involving students in taking on strategic demonstration projects. One of these projects, in 2004, was to take Dolly Parton Foundation's Imagination Library state wide by applying emerging flash technology.
TTU’s BusinessMedia Center, under the direction of Kevin Liska, developed the original Governor's Books from Birth Foundation website, now the Governor’s Early Literacy Foundation, with the help of students. Before the GBBF, only 10 counties were involved with the Imagination Library. This brand new communication website offered and organized the Imagination Library to eventually service all 95 counties in Tennessee. The BusinessMedia Center introduced emerging flash technology, with the help of iCubes own Paul Harrison, to the Imagination Library website through an interactive map that encouraged counties to competitively join the program. Our work didn’t stop there. We pitched the idea to the Dolly Parton Foundation to develop a CD-ROM kit to help other states take on and adopt the Imagination Library on a state wide basis. Once the technology was fully launched, Kevin Liska was invited to a get together in Gatlinburg to celebrate and Kevin got this photo with Dolly.
Dolly Parton and the Imagination Library has inspired kids everywhere to be excited about reading and literacy. Here at iCube, we are proud that we had the opportunity to work with her foundation and bring those resources state wide.