ARCHIVIST OF THE HALL OF RECORDS 21

posit at the Hall of Records before otherwise disposing of them,
the Archivist was asked this year to accept the records of the
Maryland Racing Commission. After a detailed examination of
these records in the offices of the Commission in Baltimore, it
was recommended that none of these records be transferred.
The reasons for this recommendation were (1) those records of
permanent historic or administrative value were so small in
bulk that it did not seem advisable to break up the series and
(2) those records lacking in permanent historic or administra-
tive value were less than five years old and the chances against
their being altogether non-current relatively slight. It was
further recommended that none of these records be destroyed,
since those which lack obvious permanent value come within the
provisions of the law cited above which forbids the destruction
of records less than five years of age. The only alternative
remaining to the Commission, therefore, was to retain these
records in its offices.

That this solution was not ideal is obvious. The Racing
Commission has little room for the storage of records, and such
space as it has is in a modern office building in Baltimore where
rentals are very expensive. Moreover, ideally it should be the
head of the Commission rather than the Archivist who would
decide whether a record is current or non-current. The Secre-
tary of the Commission presumably knows exactly whether a
record is needed for the conduct of business in his office, the
Archivist only feels that records older than these should be given
precedence in the limited space at the Hall of Records.

REPAIR AND PRESERVATION

Until February 1, the repair and preservation work was
cared for by one employee who was engaged primarily in prepar-
ing materials for the laminator. It was possible for a worker
borrowed from another department to laminate in one day the
materials which had been prepared during the previous week.
After February 1, the operation of the laminator was taken
over by a worker who gives half her time to the Photoduplication
Department and half to the Repair Department. There is of
course enough work in each department to keep two full-time
workers busy, but until it appears feasible to enlarge our staff,
we shall go on with one-and-a-half workers in each.