ARCHIVIST OF THE HALL OF RECORDS 45

hereby repealed and re-enacted, with amendments, to read
as follows:

103. It shall be the duty of every officer, board, insti-
tution and commission of the State, including special or
temporary officers, boards and commissions, to file with the
Department of Legislative Reference two copies of every
regular or special report issued by him or it, whether such
report be in printed or other form, and also to file with the
State Library and with the Hall of Records at least one
copy of such report or other publication,

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That this act shall
take effect June 1, 1947.

Approved April 25, 1947."

EXTENT AND CHARACTER OF SERVICES

RENDERED

The Hall of Records has now been in operation for eleven
full years. During that time there has grown up, of necessity,
a body of habits and procedures relating to the kind and amount
of service which we offer to the users of our records. No effort
has been made to analyze these customs and procedures, to weigh
their value, to test their justice and logic. Moreover, no other
similar institution has subjected itself to self-examination of
this kind and to bind itself to any hard and fast rules.

Only recently the distinguished Archivist of Delaware, Mr.
Leon deValinger, Jr., made an attempt to approach the problem
by questioning the directors of similar agencies in other states,
but he found that they were unprepared, as yet, to give unquali-
fied answers. The writer attempted to approach the same prob-
lem from a different angle, to determine from various users of
records, both individual and institutional, what they expect in
record service today and what they would consider to be a rea-
sonable maximum of service to be achieved at some time in the
future when funds and personnel are available. Results of this