ARCHIVIST OF THE HALL OF RECORDS 21

STATE DOCUMENTS PROJECT

In the past year, we completed the cataloging of our collection of
State publications. This had begun with the compilation of A Guide to
the Public Documents of Maryland, 1829-1920, (typed), which our
staff had prepared in 1951. This work, however, listed only the bound
volumes of documents which the State had published together be-
tween these dates. It did not list those publications which have ap-
peared since 1920 and those which have been printed separately.

The Hall of Records is one of three State agencies which is re-
quired by law to receive copies of State documents. Our collection
has grown very rapidly. Those we receive are listed quarterly in
Maryland Libraries, the publication of the Maryland Library Associa-
tion. We also list publications appearing during the past fiscal bien-
niuni in each issue of the Maryland Manual The 1963-64 Manual,
consequently, lists those publications issued between July 1, 1961 and
June 30, 1963.

We have adopted a "library card" system for cataloging our col-
lection of State Documents. We index every publication by the name
of the issuing agency, the title of the publication, and make any neces-
sary cross-reference cards. We also index all articles appearing in such
State-issued periodicals as The Maryland Conservationist, issued by
the Game and Inland Fish Commission, and all special reports and
Legislative Council reports. We index the last two series under the
name of the commission, its chairman, and the key word in the title of
the commission.

Our index also includes rare State Documents which we have on
microfilm only. In addition, our cards for documents on film are also
filed in the public microfilm card catalog.

We have organized our collection alphabetically by the name of
the agency which created the publication. However, we have a
separate section devoted to the publications of defunct agencies, spec-
ial commissions, schools and colleges, examining boards, hospitals, and
miscellaneous organizations. We must point out, however, that our
collection of State Documents is not by any means complete. Never-
theless, it does compare favorably both in quantity and in quality with
those of the Maryland State Library and the Maryland Room of the
Enoch Pratt Free Library. We exchange our monthly lists with both
of these libraries in a constant effort to fill in the gaps in our own
series. We also supply each other with lists of documents we do not
have so that we might secure any missing documents. We hope with
the completion of our cataloging project, scholars will become in-
creasingly aware of the usefulness of these documents.