ARCHIVIST OF THE HALL OF RECORDS 49

and the use made of the Centers by State agencies may be found in
the additional number of requests for records or information from
records which were handled this year. These requests increased from
3,267 in F. Y. 1965 to 4,283 in F. Y. 1966.

The microfilming service provided to State agencies in the two
Record Centers is an integral part of our records disposition program.
Although microfilming is usually employed only when the original
would otherwise be retained indefinitely or when a security copy is
considered desirable, it may be necessary in the coming years to film
additional records simply to save space and filing equipment. Many
agencies also are becoming interested in microfilm in one form or
another, as a part of their current records procedures, and procedural
microfilming will undoubtedly play an important role in our program
for the future. This year, 3,202,530 images were filmed for State
agencies. Among these were the Proceedings of the General Assembly
of Maryland, which were filmed after each legislative day in order
to provide insurance against loss or error by the printer or while
in transit.

As a part of our microfilm service, we again provided the Com-
missioner of the Land Office with microfilm copies of the currently
recorded land records, and the Department of Assessments and Tax-
ation with copies of current deeds for its tax map program. These
records were filmed especially for the Hall of Records by the Clerks
of Court or were a part of the projection print recording program
carried on through Hail & McChesney, Inc. Our personnel supervise
the filming, inspect the film, and deliver it to the Land Office. They
also film the abstracts of mortgage releases, which are forwarded to
us each year by the Clerks in order that the security copies of the
land records in the Land Office may be complete.

In addition to our responsibility for the disposition of records and
their care while not in current use, the legislation establishing the
program made it the duty of the Hall of Records to inspect the records
management practices of all State agencies and to review proposals for
the purchase or rental of record equipment, storage space and services,
including the microfilming and photocopying of records. In the dis-
charge of these duties we have worked closely with the Department
of Budget and Procurement on requests for the purchase or rental of
record equipment and services, either at the time funds were requested