54 TWENTIETH ANNUAL REPORT

completed in twenty-two agencies, among the largest being the State Roads
Commission, the Department of Employment Security, the State Tax Commis-
sion, and the Department of Maryland State Police.

Some attention was also given to the control of records of county agencies
by schedule which was begun experimentally in one county last year. The loss
near the beginning of the year of the staff member engaged in this phase of our
work brought the county records program to a standstill. When a replacement
was found, several months were again required for orientation. Nevertheless,
seventeen schedules controlling 150 record series were established during the
year.

As a direct result of the retention schedules issued in the previous year,
or those established during fiscal year 1955, a total of 5,781.5 cubic feet of
storage and filing space has been released in the offices of the several State and
county agencies during the past fiscal year. This represents the space occupied
by 964 letter size filing cabinets. Whenever practical we have continued to
dispose of these unneeded records through sale to various waste paper compan-
ies on a contractual basis. This year the State realized $2,668.63 from the sale
of waste paper, of which $1,627.03 was returned to the General Funds of the
State.

Another important phase of our program is the reduction in the bulk of
State records through the substitution of microfilm copies for the originals. In
the implementation of this program, a total of 1,403,969 exposures were made
of the records of six agencies. These exposures are contained on 542 rolls of
16mm and 4 rolls of 35mm microfilm.

The Division's microfilm staff again provided the Commissioner of the
Land Office with microfilm copies of the currently-recorded county land re-
cords and the State Tax Commission with copies of current deeds for its tax
map program. As noted in the 'Nineteenth Annual Report of the Archivist,
the emphasis in this work, which has been performed for some years by the
Hall of Records, has shifted from the actual filming of these records to the
supervision of this program and the inspection of the film received from the
counties. In the seven counties in which our personnel still microfilm these
records, a total of 64,634 exposures was made. An additional 213,520 exposures
were received and inspected from the remaining sixteen counties which either
prepare their own microfilm copies or use the projection print recording pro-
gram carried on through Hall and McChesney, Incorporated. In the latter case
the film is forwarded to the Hall of Records after projection prints have been
made.

As in the past year, the Division continued to advise the Department of
Budget and Procurement and the Board of Public Works on all requests for
the purchase or rental of record equipment, services, and storage space. Re