52 THIRTY-FIFTH ANNUAL REPORT

The microfilm security program for the land records has
been improved and simplified by legislation eliminating the
marginal notation of mortgage releases. The legislation codifies
for statewide application the procedures used in those counties
recording only on microfilm.

Under the former abstract system, all short-form mortgage
releases were abstracted by the Clerk and forwarded to the Hall
of Records annually. This system was particularly troublesome —
we were not sure that our files were complete because the mort-
gages are not released in order, and there was always the possi-
bility of clerical error entering the system. A courthouse disaster
would have made it very difficult for us to relate the abstracts
to the original mortgages.

In the current system, the short release is recorded as a
separate instrument in the current recordings with a rider
identifying the released mortgage. The new procedure requires
one additional step in title searching in those counties continuing
to record in books, but data processing indexes are now used in
practically all counties, and the index entries can be arranged
in various ways to speed up title examination. The General Index
entry now provides access to both the original mortgage and to
the release, and the security microfilm is arranged numerically.

RECORDS MANAGEMENT STATISTICS
FOR THE FISCAL YEAR 1970

Records Retention Schedules established or revised

for State Agencies ............................ 42

Records Retention Schedules established for County,

Bi-County, and Municipal Agencies ............. 3

Total number of records series controlled by

the above schedules .................... 386

Records transferred to Record Center (cubic feet) ... 6,462

Requests for records or information from records in

the Record Center ............................ 3,925

Records destroyed (cubic feet) ................... 14,451