22 TWENTIETH ANNUAL REPORT

EVALUATION OF RECORD EQUIPMENT
AND SERVICES

We are called upon with increasing frequency by the Comptroller of the
Treasury for advice with regard to requests by county clerks of court and
registers of wills for permission to purchase record equipment or record ser-
vices. During the past year we visited the following offices to examine records
listed in proposals for repair, in order to determine whether the records needed
repair and whether the method under consideration was the correct one:

Anne Arundel County Register of Wills
Prince George's County Clerk of the Circuit Court
Prince George's County Register of Wills
Washington County Clerk of the Circuit Court
Wicomico County Clerk of. the Circuit Court,

We also visited the following offices for the purposes indicated: Baltimore
City Register of Wills, to determine the need for additional shelving request-
ed by that office; Caroline County Register of Wills, to assess the need for a
microfilm reader; Harford County Clerk of Court, to determine the need for
a new photostat machine requested by that office; Montgomery County Regi-
ster of Wills, to make a general study of the records, recordkeeping equipment,
and procedures of the office; Prince George's County Clerk of Court, to pro-
vide technical advice for improving the quality of microfilm being exposed
by that office; Somerset County Register of Wills, to discuss his proposal to
purchase new document drawers.

PUBLIC DOCUMENTS PROJECT

During the fiscal year 1955, 383 reports and publications were received.
This decrease of ninety-six from the preceding year reflects a statewide cut in
appropriations for publication purposes. The loss, therefore, was in current
documents and not in back issues.

While we did not add any document of significant value to our collection
during the year, we were able to complete the microfilming of reports held in
other collections, originals of which we have been unable to procure. One hun-
dred reports were microfilmed. Of this number, seventy-two were borrowed
from the Department of Legislative Reference; the remaining twenty-eight
were microfilmed for us by the Library of Congress, in exchange for which we
microfilmed a like number of pages (approximately 2,000) for them.