Presenters Perida Mitchell, Tamika Strong, and Tina Monaco will discuss how to establish, publicize, and foster community relationships for public libraries in Georgia interested in building a funeral program collection from the ground up. Other topics will include rights and privacy issues as well as the process of storing, organizing and ultimately digitizing your funeral program collections. Finally, all three presenters will offer tips and suggestions based on their own project experiences to guide those just getting started. If time allows, a question and answer session will follow.

By the end of this webinar, participants will be able to:

• Understand the process for establishing a funeral program collection;

• Work with community partners to promote the project;

• Identify options for organizing and storage of the items;

• Understand the basics and benefits of digitization.

Perida Mitchell is a Reference Manager at the Thomas County Public Library System’s Main Branch, where she has worked for over 27 years.  She is a native Thomasvillian and President of the local genealogy society. Through her efforts, TCPLS has collected and digitized over 4,500 funeral programs, all of which are freely available to view in the Funeral Programs from the Thomas County Public Library System collection.

Tina Monaco is the manager of the Georgia Heritage Room of the Augusta-Richmond County Public Library System in Augusta, Georgia. Ms. Monaco holds an MA in American History from Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina. She has worked in both academic and public libraries for the last fifteen years. She has overseen the digitization of over 3,000 funeral programs for the African American Funeral Programs from the Augusta-Richmond County Public Library System collection.