42 THIRTY-SECOND ANNUAL REPORT

project in our records disposition program: microfilming patients' med-
ical records for the University of Maryland Hospital. This project,
involving approximately 55,000 case folders of patients who were dis-
charged or died at the Hospital during I960 and 1961, had previously
been done by private microfilming contractors. However, the quality
of the commercial microfilm was so consistently poor that we were
requested to perform the work, in order to insure the quality required.

The Hospital had budgeted $15,000 for F. Y. 1967 for the
project, with an additional $7,500 available at the beginning of the
next fiscal year. While we would have preferred to film the records
and insert the film in acetate jackets, using our own staff and equipment,
the size of the project made this impossible. Instead, we agreed to
supervise the microfilming in the Annapolis Record Center, hiring
temporary employees and renting the microfilming equipment needed,
with funds provided by University Hospital.

Although the project was not completed during F. Y. 1967, the
Hospital has been pleased with the arrangement and has asked us to
continue it until the Hospital establishes its own microfilm service or
until the commercial microfilming companies bring their equipment
and materials up to a satisfactory level.

During the fiscal year Dorchester, Harford and Anne Arundel
Counties began disposal microfilming projects for their Assessment
Records. In each case, we assisted in these projects either by training
the microfilm camera operator, or by drafting specifications for com-
petitive bidding by private contractors. In this way, we were able to
insure quality microfilming that made the records more accessible and
provided considerable space for other use in the courthouses. A security
camera negative copy is deposited with the Hall of Records before the
original volumes are destroyed and, in some cases, the originals, because
of their historical importance, were also transferred to the archives for
permanent retention.

In the Report of the Archivist last year, I described the microfilm
recording program begun in January, 1966, for the land records of
Prince George's County. The success of this program prompted the
Clerk of Court in neighboring Montgomery County to request our
assistance in establishing a similar program. Again, we worked with
the Clerk and the County Bar Association, and through our joint efforts
obtained the Comptroller's approval for the necessary expenditure of
funds to establish the program. In order to train the personnel for the
project, we decided to begin filming the Financial Statements on July 1,