Digital Library of Georgia (DLG) awards three Competitive Digitization service grants to Georgia cultural heritage institutions across the state

ATHENS, Ga. — Three institutions are recipients of the seventh set of service grants awarded in a program intended to broaden partner participation in the DLG. The DLG solicited proposals for historic digitization projects in a statewide call, and applicants submitted proposals for projects with a cost of up to $7,500.00. DLG staff will provide free digitization, scanning, and hosting services so that more of Georgia’s diverse history can be found online for free. This subgranting program was presented the 2018 Award for Excellence in Archival Program Development by a State Institution by the Georgia Historical Records Advisory Council (GHRAC). 

The recipients and their projects include: 

Lee County Library (Leesburg, Ga.)

  • Digitization of the Lee County Library Local History Collection which contains print material dating from 1784-2000 that includes church histories, local Lee County history, and documentation of the 1994 Southwest Georgia flood.

Saint Paul’s Church (Augusta, Ga.) 

  • Description and hosting of the handwritten vestry minutes, parish and marriage registers, and commemorative materials of Saint Paul’s Church, Augusta’s oldest congregation founded in 1750.

Hargrett Library, University Archives 

  • Digitization of the University of Georgia’s Pandora yearbooks dating from 1965-1974, which include the aftermath of desegregation, the beginnings of the black student, the women’s liberation, the gay liberation, and the campus free speech movements.

Preference in the selection process was given to proposals from institutions that had not yet collaborated with the DLG. Saint Paul’s Church and the Lee County Library are both new partners for the DLG. Sheila McAlister, director of the Digital Library of Georgia notes: “Our latest slate of projects includes two new partners, a public library and a church archives. The projects document the history of Lee County, the activities of one of the oldest churches in Augusta, and student life at the University of Georgia during a period of enormous social change. With each new project, we’re able to illuminate more of the state’s history.” 

About the Lee County Library

The Lee County Library is a public library serving the Lee County, Georgia area. Learn more on their website at leecountylibrary.org/.

About Saint Paul’s Church 

Saint Paul’s Church is a community of people committed to the service and worship of Jesus Christ in their current location for over 250 years.  With their roots deeply embedded in the city of Augusta and the surrounding area they “seek and serve Christ in all persons.”  They are also rooted in their Anglican (Church of England) heritage and are an integral part of the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia. Visit their web site at www.saintpauls.org/.

About Hargrett Library, University Archives

The University of Georgia Archives preserves over two centuries of the University’s history in the form of official records, images, plans, publications, and artifacts. Their mission is to acquire, organize, preserve, and publicize such materials and to assist researchers in their use. Visit them at libs.uga.edu/hargrett/archives/.

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Digitization of city directories for Albany, Georgia, dating from 1922-1950

New online records are now available for people researching their families in Albany, Georgia. The Digital Library of Georgia has just added a collection of city directories housed at the Dougherty County Public Library, dating from 1922-1950. The collection, Albany, Georgia City Directories, is available at dlg.usg.edu/collection/zgn_albcd and contains eleven directories covering Albany during intermittent years from 1922 to 1950, and one 1937 directory from Americus.

City directories existed before telephone directories and often listed the names, addresses, occupations, and ethnicities of people in American towns and cities. Because they contain so much detailed information, they are vital resources for researchers, genealogists, and the general public. According to the Library of Congress, city directories “are among the most important sources of information about urban areas and their inhabitants. They provide personal and professional information about a city’s residents as well as information about its business, civic, social, religious, charitable, and literary institutions.”

Christina Shepherd, head of reference for the Dougherty County Public Library describes the relevance of Albany’s city directories to the researchers in her library: 

“Several patrons have asked to use the directories to see who lived in their house, to trace an ancestor’s life, verifying use of land or to see who ran what businesses.  A specific example is in 1940 there was a tornado that came through and destroyed a lot of downtown Albany. While these directories do not show that event, they show the city stayed strong after that event. The directories have the addresses where businesses were before the tornado in 1939 to where they had to relocate in 1941. Just think, those directories were the same books that our relatives, our city leaders, and others used to find an address or phone number!”

J. Douglas Porter, a writer based in Albany Georgia notes: “Much of the material I have been looking at has been digitized and is searchable. This has not only been a useful time-saver, but it has also proven to be more reliable than my visual scans of many pages of materials. The city directories have a high level of historic value and potential for reuse by multiple audiences well into the future. In fact, they will become even more valuable as time passes and the paper copies crumble.”

Link to featured images:

Albany, Georgia city directory 1934-35 containing an alphabetically arranged list of names, a classified business directory, a street directory, and much useful miscellaneous information

dlg.galileo.usg.edu/do:zgn_albcd_dir-albany1934-35 

1934-1935 city directory for Albany, Georgia containing information that identifies Albany residents, their occupations and local businesses.

Albany, Georgia city directory 1934-35 containing an alphabetically arranged list of names, a classified business directory, a street directory, and much useful miscellaneous information, page 12

Albany, Georgia city directory 1934-35 containing an alphabetically arranged list of names, a classified business directory, a street directory, and much useful miscellaneous information, page 213


Albany, Georgia city directory 1934-35 containing an alphabetically arranged list of names, a classified business directory, a street directory, and much useful miscellaneous information, page 222

About Dougherty County Public Library

The Dougherty County Public Library’s mission is “To Strengthen our Community by Inspiring, Encouraging, and Supporting Life-long Learning for all.”  The goals of the library are to select, assemble and administer organized collections of educational and recreational library materials; to serve the community as a center of reliable information and a place where inquiring minds may encounter original, unorthodox, or critical ideas in our society; to provide opportunities and encouragement for individuals to continue their educations; to supplement and help formal education programs; to seek, continually, to identify community needs; to support civic groups, cultural activities, or cooperate with other agencies as they work for community good; to maintain and disseminate public information encouraging to individuals to better use the libraries as well as to contribute to the field of professional librarianship; to enhance interest and research in local history; and to provide opportunity for substantive recreational and constructive use of leisure time through the use of literature, music, films, and other forms. Visit docolib.org/  

About the Digital Library of Georgia

Based at the University of Georgia Libraries, the Digital Library of Georgia is a GALILEO initiative that collaborates with Georgia’s libraries, archives, museums and other institutions of education and culture to provide access to key information resources on Georgia history, culture, and life. This primary mission is accomplished through the ongoing development, maintenance, and preservation of digital collections and online digital library resources. DLG also serves as Georgia’s service hub for the Digital Public Library of America and as the home of the Georgia Newspaper Project, the state’s historic newspaper microfilming project. Visit the DLG at dlg.usg.edu.

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