Lorene Flanders, Dean of Libraries at the University of West Georgia from 2005 to 2017, was the driving force behind the creation of Ingram Library's Penelope Melson Society. At her instigation, a twenty-two member Steering Committee was created in 2007 to plan a friends of the library organization which would seek to enhance UWG's program opportunities and share the resources of an academic library.

Ingram Library's Penelope Melson Society was founded to support the University of West Georgia's Ingram Library, to assist in bringing culturally enriching programs to the university and the community, and to provide a place where university and community members could come together and feel at home in a world of ideas.

The Society was named for Penelope Stevens Melson who established the first library collection for the school that would later become the University of West Georgia and volunteered as the institution's librarian from 1908 until 1920.

After a period of deliberation, the Melson Society was unveiled at a meeting in the Ingram Library on January 27, 2008, and the first slate of officers elected. Michelle Morgan, a graduate of the University of West Georgia and resident of Carrollton, was elected to be the Society's first president.

In August 2008, Catherine Hendricks was hired by the Ingram Library to assist with this and other programming initiatives.

At the same time, Dean Flanders established the Second Century Collection, a Melson Society initiative that would celebrate the centennial of the Library's founding in 1908.

In 2010, John Ferling, UWG Professor Emeritus of History, was elected to be the Society's second president. During his presidency, the Society initiated a newsletter, sponsored numerous exhibits and programs, secured grant funding from a number of sources, and sponsored a celebration of the newly-renovated Ingram Library on August 25, 2011, and the dedication of the Thomas B. Murphy State Capitol Office Replication on April 19, 2012. Myron House, UWG Special Collections Librarian Emeritus, chaired the twenty-six member Murphy Office Dedication Committee.