ARCHIVIST or THE HALL or RECORDS 5

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

November 21. 1959
To THE HONORABLE
THE HALL OF RECORDS COMMISSION
ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND

Gentlemen:

In 1955, after it had completed its survey of Maryland records
management problems, Records Engineering, Incorporated, rec-
ommended to Governor McKeldin that a record center containing
approximately 12,000 square feet be provided for the storage of little-
used non-current records. The Governor's Special Committee on
Records Management rejected this recommendation in favor of equal
space in the two new State office buildings which were then in the
planning stage. The Committee felt that a separate building would
be uneconomical if administered by so small an agency, and besides
there was the practical difficulty of providing legislative authorization
and funds for another building at a moment when the State was already
committed to two new expensive office buildings. We asked for space
in the basement of each building—perfectly proper areas for record
storage and at the same time the least desirable for office use. Our
request was granted, and although from time to time during the next
five years we were almost elbowed out by other agencies, in the end both
areas, totalling 13,000 square feet, were ours, beautifully equipped in
every way, convenient and efficient.

The Annapolis center opened in September 1958, the Baltimore
center, in June 1959. It is now possible for us for the first time to
"manage" records through every stage from their creation to their
final destruction or to permanent housing in the Hall of Records.

Unfortunately, the opening of the record centers, while giving the
Records Management Division a proper home, did not in any way
relieve the shortage of space which had been felt for some years by the
Archives Division. The new State Office Building in Annapolis, by
providing quarters for the Land Office, made it possible for us to use
the space in our own building relinquished by that office. Our greatest
gain was in the stack area. The Land Office had been assigned one-
fourth of the total and that, the choicest part—the entire first deck
and half of the second. Since there is no stack elevator, the storing of
frequently-used records on higher levels was always inconvenient and
wasteful in time and energy.