Groundbreaking Georgia LGBTQ television programming now available online

ATLANTA, Ga. — Groundbreaking Georgia LGBTQ television programming now available online
    The Digital Library of Georgia (DLG) is pleased to announce the availability of the Mike Maloney Collection of Out TV Atlanta Video Recordings at http://digitalcollections.library.gsu.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/outtv. The collection, which contains about 240 digitized tapes of raw footage created in the process of making the show, belongs to Georgia State University Library’s Special Collections and Archives. It is available thanks in part to the DLG’s 2018 Competitive Digitization grant program, a funding opportunity intended to broaden DLG partner participation for statewide historic digitization projects.
      Out TV Atlanta, which ran from 1999-2000, was a half-hour weekly news and entertainment show focused on LGBTQ life that aired in Atlanta and Savannah. The show was supported financially by its creator, Michael B. Maloney, along with his family and friends. As producer of the show, Maloney saw that most press coverage of LGBTQ life involved night clubs and drag queens; he sought to widen media focus on “ordinary” gay people who were firefighters, attorneys, and regular members of the community. Events covered include Governor Roy Barnes’ address to the Atlanta Executive Network, a gay professional organization (the first in the state), the first gay pride parade in Savannah, political events, art exhibitions and performances, and much more.
        Kathryn Michaelis, Digital Projects Coordinator, Digital Library Services, at Georgia State University notes: “We anticipate that the videos will be of interest to a wide variety of users, including researchers of LGBTQ and Atlanta history, members of the local and national LGBTQ community, media scholars, gender studies scholars, and the general public. The videos are unique primary sources that vividly document many aspects of LGBTQ life in Atlanta at the turn of the millennium. Once the videos are discoverable, they can be used for teaching, research, and entertainment, and could potentially be used by filmmakers for documentary purposes.”
          Ryan Roemerman, Executive Director of the LGBT Institute of the Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta,states: “We believe that Mr. Maloney’s groundbreaking work is of immense historic value. As the dawn of the new millennium approached, Mr. Maloney and his reporters were capturing events and preserving the moments that allow us to dig deeper into the cultural and emotional landscape for LGBTQ people at that time. The potential for use, especially amongst Georgia State University students, can provide young LGBTQ people today with a better understanding of a bygone era. These historic video recordings can convey what written words cannot always do, and are sure to be utilized in even greater numbers as time passes on.” Roemerman played an important role in facilitating the acquisition of the videos, directing Mr. Maloney to donate to the GSU Library’s Gender & Sexuality Collections.
            About Georgia State University Library Special Collections
            Located on the Atlanta campus, Georgia State University Library’s Special Collections and Archives collects and preserves unique and rare historical materials in selected subject areas. The department promotes the use of these materials by the Georgia State University community, scholars and the public. Its goal is to advance scholarship and to further the educational, research and service missions of the university.  Visit Georgia State University Library’s Special Collections and Archives at https://library.gsu.edu/search-collections/special-collections-archives/ 
              About the Digital Library of Georgia
              Based at the University of Georgia Libraries, the Digital Library of Georgia https://dlg.usg.edu 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.
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              Newly digitized Milledgeville State Hospital record book a valuable source of local history

              CONTACT: Deborah Hakes, dhakes@georgialibraries.org, 404-852-5547

              MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga — Over 100 digitized pages of a Milledgeville State Hospital Alumna Association Record Book have been added to the Digital Library of Georgia at https://dlg.usg.edu/record/gv0_csh_alreg through a partnership between the Twin Lakes Regional Library System and Georgia HomePLACE. Spanning 1910-1957, the journal records the graduating classes of the Milledgeville State Hospital Nursing School over the course of its 37-year existence and is a valuable source of information about the mental health students trained by the program.

              The Nursing School of the controversial Milledgeville State Hospital, which was also variously known as the Georgia State Lunatic, Idiot, and Epileptic Asylum; the Georgia State Sanitarium; and the Central State Hospital; began as a two-year training program, graduating 286 certified nurses. Following the closure of the Nursing School in 1947, the hospital became the site of a three-month psychiatric nursing rotation for students both in and out of state. At the time of operation, Milledgeville State Hospital was the only mental health facility in the state and drew nurses and patients from across Georgia, though allegations of neglect and mistreatment, as well as a national trend toward deinstitutionalization of patients, eventually led to the hospital’s closure in 2010.

              “Twin Lakes Library is committed to preserving and sharing elements of our community’s history, especially ones that offer new insights into the complicated story of Central State Hospital,” says Twin Lakes Library System Director Stephen Houser. “We hope that community members, scholars, and researchers will find great benefit from this fascinating record.”

              Sept. 8 discussion to explore history of Nursing at Central State Hospital

              Little research has been completed about psychiatric nursing students during this time. To shed further light on the program’s history, the Mary Vinson Memorial Library will host a panel discussion titled “Nursing at Central State,” on Sept. 8, at 11 a.m. in the Local History Room.

              The panel, which will include two retired Central State Hospital nurses and Gail Godwin, Assistant Professor of Nursing at Georgia College and co-author of an oral history study on psychiatric clinical experiences, will discuss the history of nursing and how Central State Hospital changed the medical field in Georgia.

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              Georgia HomePLACE encourages public libraries and related institutions to participate in the Digital Library of Georgia. HomePLACE offers a highly collaborative model for digitizing primary source collections related to local history and genealogy. HomePLACE is supported with federal Library Services and Technology Act funds administered by the Institute of Museum and Library Services through the Georgia Public Library Service, a unit of the Board of Regents of the University System 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 digital access to key information resources on Georgia history, culture and life. 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.

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