ARCHIVIST OF THE HALL OF RECORDS 49

RECORDS MANAGEMENT PROGRAM

The efforts of the Hall of Records to provide an effective records
management service for State and local agencies of government made
steady progress during the year. Encouraging results were achieved at
the State level and progress was made in our program for the better
management of county records.

The present county records program was undertaken, not as the
result of legislative mandate, but because the proliferation of govern-
mental records had created a crisis of the first order in the procedures of
local governments and it became necessary for some central service
agency to provide them with guidance and assistance. It has developed
over a period of twenty-five years from a program directed toward the
preservation and centralization of the older county records to one which
now includes advice and assistance to county officers on almost all
phases of records administration. Participation in the program is for
the most part voluntary, but county officials in ever-increasing numbers
look to the Hall of Records for help in controlling the growth of rec-
ords, providing adequate storage facilities, and insuring the disposal
of useless records while assuring the preservation of those of permanent
value.

Emphasis in the program has been placed on the control of county
records by schedule for two reasons: first, so that records which should
be preserved may be identified and either transferred to the Hall of
Records or otherwise secured against loss; and second, so that the space
and equipment occupied by unneeded records may be returned to the
agency for re-use. The critical shortage of space in most county offices
has made officials increasingly cognizant of the need for improved
records control and eager to cooperate. In the course of the year fif ty-two
schedules governing 324 separate records series were established and
6,174 cubic feet of filing and storage space released under the au-
thority contained in these schedules and those established in previous
years. In addition, we began an intensive program of ordering the
records in Montgomery County, one of the most populous counties in
the State. A record center in that county was established to house non-
current records and the task of bringing the records of all county
agencies under the control of schedules was being pushed toward com-
pletion. At our suggestion, provision was made in the 1962 budget for