42 TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT

records made just prior to the initiation of the records management
program, recommended that the State erect a central records depository,
containing approximately 12,000 square feet of storage space. Since
the State had already made plans for the construction of two new State
Office Buildings, one in Annapolis and the other in Baltimore, the
special commission appointed by the Governor to supervise the work of
Records Engineering, Inc. suggested as an economy measure that
record storage space be provided in these buildings. Subsequently, the
State Office Building Committee approved the allocation of space for a
records center in each building to serve the State agencies in each area.
Five years elapsed, however, before the first building was completed
and the Annapolis Center became a reality. During that time, make-
shift storage was provided in the Department of Budget and Procure-
ment Warehouse in a few critical cases, but most agencies had to retain
non-current records in their offices or storage areas.

The two Centers are as similar in design as the areas allocated and
the funds available permitted. The one in Annapolis occupies an
area of 5,700 square feet and includes an office, microfilm room, search
room and stack area. The Baltimore Center is larger, containing
7,100 square feet with the microfilm and research facilities located
between the two sections of stacks. Air conditioning, asphalt tile
floors, fluorescent or pendant lights and a smoke detector and fire
warning system add to the utility and convenience of these fire resistant
areas.

Funds for the purchase of equipment for the Centers were provided
from the General Emergency Funds of the State. The steel shelving
was made to our specifications by the State Use Industries operated
through the Department of Correction and was purchased at about
seventy per cent of the cost of commercial shelving. The sections of
shelving are of standard dimensions—forty-two inches wide and thirty
inches deep—with the ceilings permitting a height of one hundred
inches in Annapolis but only eighty-four in Baltimore. The shelves
were fabricated from sixteen gauge steel with additional support under
each edge to increase their weight-carrying capacity. Additional
braces link the sections together and offset the need for anchoring the
ranges of shelving to either the floor or the ceiling. Together, the
Centers contain sufficient shelving to house 19,061 cubic feet of records.
To store the records on the shelves, a standard size cardboard record
container with a lock-type bottom and an interlocking top was designed.
This box can be assembled by the using agency without the use of tape