RECORDS MANAGEMENT HIGHLIGHTS DURING THE YEAR

Fiscal Year 1971 proved to be a good one for the Records Management
Division. While old programs were not neglected, progress was made in
our efforts to manage and control more effectively the records of State
and local agencies of government. For the first time, we provided a complete
in-house computer-output microfilm service for State agencies and we
acquired additional space for the storage and servicing of the State's semi-
current records.

The Records Management Division assumed computer-output microfilm
(COM) responsibility in June 1968 and acquired in-house capability in
June 1970. Since the Hall of Records has become increasingly active in
microfilming since its first camera was purchased in 1941, it seemed
a natural extension of our central microfilm service.

The use of microfilm by the Hall of Records, as originally
implemented, was limited to the conversion of records of permanent value
occupying prime office space, or records judged to have sufficient value
to justify the creation of a security copy. Thus, from space saving and
security, our use of microfilm has progressed to procedural and finally
information dissemination.

During the period 1968-1970, we used commercial service bureaus
for COM conversion. Our Division had responsibility for negotiating with
the various COM service bureaus regarding price and turn-around time,
coordinating the transfer of the magnetic tapes to the service bureau,
inspecting the camera film for quality and completeness, duplicating
and packaging the multiple copies, and making recommendations to the
operating agencies concerning the acquisition of microfilm retrieval
equipment.

Our experience with COM service bureaus was not a happy one. There
were problems of quality and delivery. Thus, we were pleased when, with
the assistance of the State's ADP Coordinator, the Department of Budget
and Fiscal Planning authorized us to acquire in-house capability and to
operate a COM program on a service bureau basis. Forty-one programs for
eight State agencies are generated directly from magnetic tape to microfilm
in the Annapolis Records Center. They range in size from 2,000 to 132,000
images (pages). Thus, we are supporting large volume, high access
information systems through the use of microfilm. I wish to describe
briefly one of the programs in our Income Tax Division for the Comptroller
of the Treasury.

The Alphabetical Index to Income Tax Returns is the basic guide
to the processed returns. This Index provides access to two million
individuals returns filed with the Income Tax Division each year. The
conversion of the file to microfilm began in 1954 as a space saving application
and our microfilm facility had sole responsibility for the conversion.