Department, was generous with her time and information, and constantly kept us informed of develop-
ments that might affect the Manual. Janet Davidson and Pat Hofmann in the President of the Senate's
Office and Susan McCann in the Speaker of the House's Office provided essential information for the
Legislature section of the book. Willard Morris and his staff at the State Administrative Board of Elec-
tion Laws proved cooperative in many ways. F. Carvel Payne and his staff, especially the Library Divi-
sion personnel, freely gave of their time and expertise. Bill Jabine of the Department of Natural Re-
sources continued his biennial task of updating the Maryland At A Glance section in addition to the
submission for his department.

One small, but very important, addition to this Maryland Manual is the designation by number of
the various sessions of the General Assembly discussed in the Legislature section of the book. Al-
though we are often asked how many sessions of the General Assembly have been held, it has hereto-
fore been impossible to give a definitive answer, Lynn Browne and Jane McWilliams, two members of
the Hall of Records Legislative History Project team, used data compiled in the Hall of Records' on-
going study of the Maryland legislature to determine exactly how many legally constituted sessions of
the legislative branch of government have been held to date. Their research established that the Gener-
al Assembly that met on January 11, 1983, was the 386th meeting of the legislative branch, a number
that includes all proprietary assemblies, commonwealth assemblies, provincial conventions, revolution-
ary conventions, and general assemblies back to the first, which assembled in St. Mary's on February
26, 1634/35.

Compilation of the county section of the Maryland Manual is as difficult as any. Among the host of
individuals who provided information, Leigh Sands, clerk of the Caroline County Board of Commis-
sioners, deserves our special thanks for the thorough information on county government and personnel
she supplied. The staff of the Maryland Municipal League was helpful and courteous whenever we had
questions concerning Maryland municipalities. The Judiciary section of the book is much improved in
readability and accuracy due to the efforts of Deborah Unitus. A special thanks is due to Chief Judge
Robert C. Murphy for allowing us to reprint extensively from the descriptions of judicial agencies that
appeared in the 1981-1982 Annual Report of the Judiciary, edited by Ms. Unitas.

Text for the Maryland Manual is produced on in-house text editing equipment, which not only saves
time but results in considerable savings to the State in the composition of camera-ready pages. The
highly technical and exacting task of properly keyboarding new text and revisions, and of managing
the data file generated for the book, devolved principally upon two individuals, Jane Morris Drupieski
and Beverly Davis. No one could ask for more than they willingly gave to complete this project.
Barbara Hopkins, Lois Hess, and Alyee Libby also assisted in various aspects of the work. That the
book appeared in a timely fashion is largely due to the hard work of these individuals.

It is impossible to thank by name all of the hundreds of people throughout the State of Maryland
who contributed to this edition of the Maryland Manual. What is good about the book is to a large
extent due to help we received from outside our agency; responsibility for the faults we reserve to our-
selves. We do in any case extend our deepest appreciation to everyone who contributed to this book in
whatever capacity.

The Maryland Manual is, for many people, nothing more than a current reference book that is
discarded every two years when a new edition appears. For those of us associated with Maryland his-
tory and government it is much more. Thanks to a dedicated staff and conscientious respondents
thoughout Maryland government, the Maryland Manual is a benchmark of the status of the State at a
given time. The successive editions of the Maryland Manual, now covering nearly ninety years, provide
a valuable, and often overlooked, source for the study of Maryland history and government. It is our
hope that the edition that follows will be judged a worthy successor to the volumes that preceded it,
and that it will serve as a fair, accurate, and complete guide to the government of the State as Mary-
land celebrates its 350th year.

Annapolis, Maryland Gregory A. Stiverson, Editor
14 January 1983 Edward C. Papenfuse, Managing Editor