In 1944, the West Georgia Regional Library System originated under the leadership of Edith L. Foster. Its first headquarters was located in the basement of the Sanford Library on the West Georgia College campus in Carrollton, Georgia. In 1967, the headquarters moved from its second location, a small house on Carrollton's Maple Street, to a building on Rome Street, also in Carrollton. William Lomason gave $100,000 toward construction of the building, and the library was named in memory of his wife, Neva Wigle Lomason. On April 26, 1988, the “Friends of the Neva Lomason Memorial Library” was formed and then incorporated the next year. Its purposes were to foster closer relations between the Neva Lomason Memorial Library and citizens of the Carrollton, Georgia, area; to promote knowledge of the Library’s functions, resources, services, and needs; and to aid in the development of a program for the extension and improvement of library services and resources. In addition to its fundraising and other programming initiatives, the organization sponsored in March 2010, “The Big Read,” a community-wide literacy initiative focused on the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird. This was followed in March 2011 with a second Big Read centered on The Great Gatsby, and a third in March 2012 focusing on The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.