Georgia Official and Statistical Register
Over the years of its publication (1923 -1990) the content and length of the Georgia Official and Statistical Register volumes varied somewhat, though in general it provided - information on categories such as:
- state executive offices, boards and commissions
- the state legislature and legislators, including short biographies with photos
- elections
- the state judiciary
- Georgia's federal representation
- the University System of Georgia
- county officers and data
- miscellaneous (e.g. flag, song, state symbols, poets laureate)
Compiled every two years by the Department of Archives and History (now Georgia Archives), it was not a handbook that explained the workings of the state government for the uninitiated, but rather a kind of directory or "state of the state" with a concentration on the officials who guided it. Legislator and other official biographies included photos beginning in 1951. Starting with the 1979-1980 volume the amount of information was reduced, and in 1989-1990 the project came to an end. For today's historians it contains a wealth of information not easily accessible elsewhere.
This electronic version was digitized by the Digital Library of Georgia from the print volumes, which are available in the UGA Main Library Georgia government documents collection. Users are able to search across the text of all the volumes (about 28,000 pages). Browsing is also possible by using the Table of Contents page of each volume in conjunction with the Go To Page feature.
Post-1990 information is best obtained from state government web sites and the Georgia Government Publications database (choose the subject "Georgia" in GALILEO@UGA). In particular, for information about legislators, see what is commonly known as the Picture Book.