ARCHIVIST OF THE HALL OF RECORDS 3

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

January 11, 1958

To THE HONORABLE

THE HALL OF RECORDS COMMISSION
ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND

Gentlemen:

One of the requirements made of the Archivist is that he prepare and
present to you at the end of each fiscal year a report of the work of the Hall
of Records staff. This is the twenty-second report of this kind since the
beginning of the Hall of Records, and of this number I have prepared eight-
een, all having to do with my term of office. I also edited for publication
typescript reports for the first three years of the Hall of Records, which had
been prepared by the first Archivist, Dr. James Alexander Robertson.

Each one of these reports has seemed to me in the writing to indicate
only a little change here and there from the previous year--a few more records
received, a book published now and then, some county records microfilmed.
But now after so many years, it is plain that much has been accomplished.
Our building is bulging with a magnificent collection of county and state
records, perhaps the best collection of this kind in the country. The accumula-
tion of card indexes, printed guides, calendars and other finding apparatus of
an establishment such as ours is large. Our collection of microfilm of county
records is important and growing more so. Our records are in excellent phys-
ical condition, and the service which we offer searchers, while not always so
complete as some might wish, compares favorably with that offered by other
states.

The gains of each year's work, however much or little, until three years
ago fell, for the most part, into the same categories as at the beginning. Then
in 1953, we undertook the State's Records Management program. How large
a part of our total accomplishment lies in that field will be obvious to you
when you have reached that part of my report. To us it seems considerable;
and it should, for it employes almost a third of our staff and costs more than
a third of our budget.

Now, in the new fiscal year, our records management work
will be expanded beyond the confines of this building. We shall have
space in both new office buildings, or in the Annapolis Armory; but in any