ARCHIVIST OF THE HALL OF RECORDS 43

Work also continued on the review of records in the county courthouses.
Participation in this program is voluntary, but most county officials are cog-
nizant of the need for improved records control and are eager to cooperate.
Since we had previously developed records schedules for most of the Clerks of
Court and Registers of Wills, we gave more attention to other major county
offices. As a result, we were able to establish schedules for the records of the
County Commissioners, Treasurers, and Supervisors of Assessments of Car-
oline, Kent, Queen Anne's, and Talbot Counties. We also prepared control
schedules for the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission,
and the town of Kensington. During the year, thirty-one schedules covering
244 record series were established for local agencies of government.

The schedules developed will control the future accumulation of records.
In the meantime, they have the immediate effect of releasing the storage and
filing space occupied by present accumulations. During fiscal year 1957,
12,160 cubic feet of space was released for reuse by State and county agencies.
This is the equivalent of the space required to house 2,026 letter-size filing
cabinets. As in the past, we have continued to dispose of the unneeded records
to various waste paper companies on a contractual basis. This year, the State
realized $3,316.60 from the sale of waste paper, of which $2,751.25 was re-
turned to the General Funds of the State. The remainder reverted to the De-
partment of Employment Security which operates entirely on Federal funds.

Reduction in the bulk of records also was accomplished through the sub-
stitution of microfilm copies for the originals. Microfilming for this purpose
is usually done when the originals would otherwise be retained indefinitely.
A small percentage of our microfilm work, however, called for the preparation
of insurance copies of important State records. During the year, a total of
1,783,026 exposures was made of records of six agencies. These exposures are
contained on 343 reels of 16mm. and four reels of 35mm. microfilm.

In addition, the microfilm staff again provided the Commissioner of the
Land Office with microfilm copies of the currently-recorded county land
records and the State Tax Commission with copies of current deeds for its
tax map program. Our personnel now film these records in six counties and
supervise this work and inspect the completed film in the remaining seven-
teen counties. They also continue to cooperate in the Hail of Records long-
range program of securing insurance copies of the major county record series
by inspecting the film exposed for us by the county Clerks. That good pro-
gress was made in these areas will be evident from an examination of the more
detailed report found in the pages that follow.