ARCHIVIST OF THE HALL OF RECORDS 47

the future as the master building plan for Annapolis is implemented.
By that time we expect at least part of the 100,000 square feet which
has been requested for record center space in Annapolis and Baltimore
to be available.

As in the past, we continued to serve as advisor to the Comp-
troller of the Treasury on the expenditure of funds for record equip-
ment and services by the Clerks of Court and the Registers of Wills
in the counties. This year there was a noticeable increase in the requests
for photocopiers. Apparently this was due in part to the increased
reluctance of title searchers to abstract from the record book by hand
when a copy of the record could be secured inexpensively. Since it
was often difficult to justify a copy machine in some of the smaller
offices, we recommended that the Clerk and the Register and in some
cases the County Commissioners share the cost of this equipment. In
other cases the photocopier requested was justified on the basis of
recording certain records on the machine. In these cases, we have
limited the recording done on photocopiers to those record series with
a short life span, such as Financing Statements, or to those in which
the original instrument does not leave the recording office, such as the
Equity Record. We have encouraged the Clerks and Registers to have
photocopiers available since it is no longer practical for copies to be
made on the typewriter by office personnel, nor is it reasonable to
expect title searchers laboriously to abstract from the record book
by hand.

RECORDS MANAGEMENT STATISTICS
FOR FISCAL YEAR 1969

Records Retention Schedules established or revised for

State Agencies ............................... 16

Records Retention Schedules established for County, Bi-

County, and Municipal Agencies.................. 19

Total number of records series controlled

by the above schedules.................... 246

Records transferred to Record Centers (cu. ft.) ....... 5,687

Requests for Records or information from records in

Record Centers .............................. 4,311

Records Destroyed (cu. ft.) ....................... 14,541