ARCHIVIST OF THE HALL OF RECORDS 51

number, 1,314 cubic feet were transferred to the Baltimore Record
Center; the remaining records were destroyed.

As a result of our efforts to reduce the quantity of records retained
in the offices and storage areas of State agencies, 3,541 cubic feet of
records from twenty-six agencies were accepted for deposit in the
Record Center in Baltimore, and 405 cubic feet from seven agencies,
in the Center in Annapolis. The small quantity of records transferred
to the Annapolis Center was due to the smaller volume of records
eligible for storage there and to the difficulty in transferring records
from agencies located outside the State Office Building, because of the
lack of suitable equipment for moving them into the building. Funds
have been provided in the budget of the Superintendent of Public
Buildings and Grounds for the purchase of a platform lift which should
remedy this deficiency.

With the increased volume of records housed in the Record Cen-
ters, additional time was required to service them properly. Under
authority granted in the retention schedule, Center personnel service
the records from the time they are received until they are destroyed.
This service includes shelving the records, maintaining the necessary
control forms, providing reference to the records, microfilming records
to be preserved on film, and supervising their destruction. In the course
of the year 1,130 requests were received for record units or information
from records in the two Centers. As our Record Center holdings in-
crease, the number of reference requests will also increase.

Reduction in the bulk of records through the substitution of micro-
film copies remains an important part of our records program. Micro-
filming is usually employed when the original would otherwise be
retained indefinitely or when a security copy is considered necessary.
This year 2,114,628 exposures were made for ten State agencies. The
records microfilmed and retired, as well as those destroyed without film-
ing from the Record Centers and from agencies of the State or local
governments, amounted to 10,189 cubic feet. As in the past, we have
continued to dispose of these unneeded records to various waste paper
companies on a contractual basis. This year the State derived $1,842.99
from this source, of which $1,631.80 was returned to the general funds
of the State. The remainder went to the Department of Employment
Security which operates entirely on federal funds.

We again provided the Commissioner of the Land Office with
microfilm copies of the currently recorded land records and the Depart-