ARCHIVIST OF THE HALL OF RECORDS 43

RECORDS MANAGEMENT PROGRAM

At the close of the fiscal year on June 30, 1963, the Records Man-
agement program completed its first ten years of life. It seems appro-
priate, therefore, in this Annual Report to review the first decade of
the program in the space normally reserved for a summary of the
accomplishments of a single year.

The legislation enacted by the General Assembly of Maryland in
1953, which established the program and assigned responsibility for
its administration to the Hall of Records, applied only to State
agencies. Earlier acts of the Legislature, however, required all public
officials of Maryland to offer their records to the Archivist prior to
destruction and to file a list of all records destroyed with the Hall of
Records.

Under the authority granted by the Act of 1953 and these earlier
laws, the Records Management Division has endeavored to provide
assistance to agencies at both the State and local levels of government
in all phases or records administration. These phases include: 1) Con-
trol of the creation of records; 2) Management of records while in
current use; 3) Selection of material for retention or destruction; and
4) Retirement by transfer to records centers, to the archives, or by
destruction.

In the initiation and development of such a program, however, it
is seldom possible to begin intensive work in all phases at once.
Emphasis must be placed on providing immediate relief for the
agencies to be served. Because the proliferation of records had created
a serious crisis in the procedures of many State agencies, emphasis
first was directed toward bringing the records of these agencies under
the control of records schedules. By doing this, those records which
should be retained could be identified and preserved, while those of
temporary value could be destroyed as soon as they were no longer
needed. In addition to the space and equipment released by the de-
struction of unneeded records, the information gained in the surveys
required to establish these schedules is of value in assisting these
agencies in other phases of records administration.

The selection of current records for retention or disposal is never
an easy task. Since those records representing vital interests of govern-
ment or of the people and those adequately documenting operations
of governmental agencies must be preserved, it requires knowledge
both of the agencies producing the records and of the probable use to
which they will be put. It further requires recognition of the public
need to preserve records for other purposes, even though the records
may no longer be of value to the agency which created them. The cost