Category: New Collections

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New Partnership and New Collection with the Pine Mountain Regional Library

Report on health and sanitation aims, Manchester, Georgia, 1953. Document describes 19 aims or goals for health and sanitation in Manchester, Georgia, including making periodic inspections of places serving food; public water sources; public restrooms and slaughter houses. Other goals include instituting mosquito and rodent control; eliminating all outdoor toilets; building a sanitary landfill and iniating a flood control program. Pine Mountain Regional Library Collection.
Report on health and sanitation aims, Manchester, Georgia, 1953. Document describes 19 aims or goals for health and sanitation in Manchester, Georgia. Pine Mountain Regional Library Collection.

We are excited to announce our new partnership with the Pine Mountain Regional Library and welcome the Pine Mountain Regional Library Collection to the DLG.

The Pine Mountain Regional Library Collection includes photographs from scrapbooks submitted to Georgia Power’s Champion Home Town contest in 1952 and 1953. The photos document the town’s progress in the areas of education, industry, recreation, youth, clubs and societies, and include brief written progress reports. The reports and photographs present a snapshot of a small town through the eyes of its community. The collection also includes 1955 and 1957 issues of The Callaway Beacon, a weekly magazine published for the employees and families of the Callaway Mills Company in LaGrange, Georgia.

Cynthia Kilby, the director of the Pine Mountain Regional Library, says that the collection “provides a nice snapshot of life in a small town during the 1950s…It shows community pride and the development boom that occurred after World War II.” She adds that the reports in the scrapbooks were eye-opening. “The narratives listed community improvements. It was startling to read what some of the goals were, such as every home having indoor plumbing by a certain year. That is something we take for granted now.”

Digitized as part of the DPLA’s Public Library Partnerships Project (PLPP), the Pine Mountain Regional Library Collection is one of our newest resources featuring materials from public library collections. Kilby notes “We don’t have an archives in the community, so this kind of material isn’t readily available except through this program.” We would like to thank the Pine Mountain Regional Library for collaborating with the Digital Library of Georgia to make its collection available for digitization, and hope that you enjoy looking through the Pine Mountain Regional Library Collection!

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New Collection from the Hall County Library System

Program for the Gainesville High School talent contest, Gainesville, Georgia, 1955 May 17. Hall County Library System Collection, Hall County Library System, Gainesville, Georgia.
Program for the Gainesville High School talent contest, Gainesville, Georgia, 1955 May 17. Hall County Library System Collection, Hall County Library System, Gainesville, Georgia.

We are excited to announce a new collection, the Hall County Library System Collection, which comes from our longtime partner, the Hall County Library System.

It is available at http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/CollectionsA-Z/bgh_search.html

This collection was digitized as part of the DPLA’s Public Library Partnerships Project (PLPP), which connects public librarians and public library collections with the DLG and DPLA. We appreciate the opportunity to work with Georgia’s public libraries and learn more about the communities that they serve.

Ronda Sanders, who oversees the Sybil Wood McRay Genealogy & Local History Collection of the Hall County Library System describes the history of the Hall County Library System, which serves a county population of over 187,700 people.

“Prior to 1933, the ladies of the Grace Episcopal Church started a small community library in the basement of their church.  The tornado of 1936 destroyed the Grace Episcopal Church along with the library.  Because of this loss to the community, Hall County residents started the groundwork for a public library in Hall County, Georgia. The first meeting of the Hall County Library Board was held in 1937.  In March of 1938, the Hall County Library System officially moved into the basement of the courthouse where it remained until a modern two story library building was dedicated on February 8, 1970.  The library system has always been involved in the preservation of Hall County’s history.”

Photograph of teenagers at the Debuteen Ball, Gainesville, Georgia, 1953 December 30. Hall County Library System Collection, Hall County Library System, Gainesville, Georgia.
Photograph of teenagers at the Debuteen Ball, Gainesville, Georgia, 1953 December 30. Hall County Library System Collection, Hall County Library System, Gainesville, Georgia.

The Hall County Library System Collection contains photographs and memorabilia related to Gainesville, Georgia, Gainesville High School and Riverside Military School, and features photographs, flyers, dance invitations, concert programs, student newspapers and yearbooks belonging to Vera “Buzzie” Bennett, a student at Gainesville High School in the 1950s. The collection also includes a 1819-1926 record book for the Inferior Court in Gainesville, and a 1911 Riverside Military School yearbook.

A large part of the work on the Hall County Library System Collection has been done by library staff and devoted volunteers, including Sybil McRay, Louise White, LoRetta C. Parker, Mary Gallant, Susan Stewart, Tina Dumestre, Adrian Mixson, and Ronda Sanders.

We would like to thank the Hall County Library System for another opportunity to collaborate on bringing their valuable resources to the Digital Library of Georgia, and hope that you enjoy looking through the new Hall County Library System Collection!

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