Evening star., 1940-01-03
Report Cites Role
OF National Archives
In Preserving Records
Survey Of Valuable
u. S. Documents
D. c. VirtuoIIy Completed

With a total outlay of less than a
million dollars for the last year, the
annual report of the National
Archives, released today, shows that
preservation of records and storage
space saving were "of inestimable
value to the country historically
and financially.
"It is known, for example, that
Government filing equipment re-
leased for further use by the trans
fer of records to the National
Archives during the year had an ac-
tual value of some $4,000 and re-
placement value of approximately
S72,OOO," the report said. Similarly,
1t is known that the records stored
in the building at the end OF the
year formerly occupied some $4,000
square feet of space in buildings
owned or rented by the Government
and that the annual rental OF this
amount of space is about Sl68,000.
sands of feet Of floor space were re-
leased through the efforts Of the
National Archives in reporting large
quantities of useless papers to Con-
gress for disposal. though it may
safely be assumed that the figure
was large"
Charged with threefold duty of
preserving and concentrating non
current records, facilitating the use
of records received in Government
business, and the filing and preser-
vation of executive orders and presi-
dental proclamations, the Archives
in the last year has considerably
expanded its storage space.
Survey Virtually Completed.
The year saw virtual completion
of the survey of Federal records in
the District of Columbia which was
begun in 1885 in order to obtain "in-
formation about their volume, the
repositories in which they were
stored the state of their preserva-
ton and arrangements the hazards
to which they were exposed, the i'm
pedimentS to work in the deposi-
tories, and as far as possible, the
volume that would probably be
transferred from time to time 10 the
National Archives.
This survey has extended over
a five-year period, though the bulk
of the work was done during the
fiscal year of 1886, and has covered
the records of the legislative branch
of the Government, all the eXecu-
tive departments, the majority of
the independent agencies and most
of the courts. About 10000 cubic
feet of records were surveyed during
the fiscal year just ended, bringing
the total of records surveyed to
2,729 1893 cubic feet of paper records,
17,737,879 running feet of motion
picture film, 2,346,59S still-picture
negatives, and 5,495 sound record
ings, which were found in 6,570
different repositories or rooms.
Hazards Cited.
"At the time they were surveyed,
more than third of all the records
were found to be exposed to danger
from fire; nearly half to damage
from dust, grit and filth and the
smaller portions to damage from
rain excessive sunlight, theft, mold,
vernin and other hazards. Approx
mately half of the records surveyed
could not be readily used because of
inaccessibility, poor lighting, lack of
ventilation, inadequate equipment
or disorderly arrangement. Many
were so badly worn by constant use
or so weakened by age or other
causes that they could not be used
without danger of further damage"
the report stated.
The report shows that the ex-
ecutive departments during the last
fiscal year deposited nearly five
sixths of the records received in the
Archives and that of this nearly half
came from the War Department.
Calls for information stored in the
Archives greatly increased during
the last year and visitors also in
creased in number.
Perhaps because of strained in
ternational relations, records of the
Archives show that most calls last
year came for information and back
ground on the foreign relations of
the United States. The history of
the trans Mississippi West was also
popular with searchers. War De-
partment records also were useful
in various Civil War studies.