18 NINTH ANNUAL REPORT

MICROFILM

In the last Annual Report it was noted that our program for
microfilming all of our essential records as insurance against loss due
to the hazards of war was practically complete. Only one item,
Index to Wills, Anne Arundel County 1777-1893 remained on our list.
It was completed in a few days and was followed by the filming of
one and a half volumes of the Annapolis Evening Capital the original
of which was no longer in condition to be handled.

In addition to the listing in the Annual Reports of records which
have been microfilmed, all of our films have been catalogued in the
three-volume series of the Philadelphia Bibliographical Center and
Union Library. These catalogues are to be found in the larger Uni-
versity and Municipal libraries and they will open to scholars a great
new field from which to draw their materials. Some of the cooperating
agencies will now make copies of their master negatives to order, but
since opur negatives have been placed in Western Maryland for the dura-
tion of the war we have found it necessary to postpone our part in
this program for the present. When the war is over we shall probably
find that microfilming will have superseded all other types of copying
when the desired materials exceed a few pages in length.

The Recordak microfilm reader whose purchase for the Hall of
Records was authorized in 1941 by the Board of Public Works has
not yet been delivered and we are not likely to get it until the demand
for such readers for V-Mail purposes shall have passed.

One of the long-term advantages of having microfilm copies of all
our important records is already being enjoyed by the Hall of Records.
There is no way to avoid tending records out of the Hall of Records
for binding, and it is conceivable that records may have to be with-
drawn for the use of courts or for other purposes. How to protect
records during the period when they are removed from the vaults
has always been a major problem in archival establishments. This
problem is at least partially solved by the existence of microfilm copies,
for even should the original record volume be lost, the contents of that
volume would be preserved exactly.

ACCESSIONS—ARCHIVAL MATERIAL

Accessions for the past year showed an increase over previous war
yours,