Title 20EducationRelease 119-73

§2104 Functions of Center

Title 20 › Chapter CHAPTER 43— - AMERICAN FOLKLIFE PRESERVATION › Subchapter SUBCHAPTER I— - GENERAL PROVISIONS › § 2104

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

Gives the Librarian the power to make contracts, following federal procurement rules, to support and run programs about American folklife. That includes funding research and training, putting on live shows, festivals, exhibits, and workshops, creating and buying exhibitions and presentations (like films and audio/video), and making materials designed for classroom use. Allows the Librarian to set up and run a national archive and center with other federal agencies; collect and preserve creative works, objects, recordings, manuscripts, and exhibits; lend items to people and groups; arrange displays, broadcasts, and partnerships with broadcasters, museums, and schools; lend classroom materials to educational institutions and State arts councils; and create other programs to preserve, revive, and share American folklife. The Librarian must act through the Center.

Full Legal Text

Title 20, §2104

Education — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)The Librarian is authorized to—
(1)enter into, in conformity with Federal procurement statutes and regulations, contracts with individuals and groups for programs for the—
(A)initiation, encouragement, support, organization, and promotion of research, scholarship, and training in American folklife;
(B)initiation, promotion, support, organization, and production of live performances, festivals, exhibits, and workshops related to American folklife;
(C)purchase, receipt, production, arrangement for, and support of the production of exhibitions, displays, publications, and presentations (including presentations by still and motion picture films, and audio and visual magnetic tape recordings) which represent or illustrate some aspect of American folklife; and
(D)purchase, production, arrangement for, and support of the production of exhibitions, projects, presentations, and materials specially designed for classroom use representing or illustrating some aspect of American folklife;
(2)establish and maintain in conjunction with any Federal department, agency, or institution a national archive and center for American folklife;
(3)procure, receive, purchase, and collect for preservation or retention in an appropriate archive creative works, exhibitions, presentations, objects, materials, artifacts, manuscripts, publications, and audio and visual records (including still and motion picture film records, audio and visual magnetic tape recordings, written records, and manuscripts) which represent or illustrate some aspect of American folklife;
(4)loan, or otherwise make available, through Library of Congress procedures, any item in the archive established under this subchapter to any individual or group;
(5)present, display, exhibit, disseminate, communicate, and broadcast to local, regional, State, or National audiences any exhibition, display, or presentation referred to in clause (3) of this section or any item in the archive established pursuant to clause (2) of this section, by making appropriate arrangements, including contracts with public, nonprofit, and private radio and television broadcasters, museums, educational institutions, and such other individuals and organizations, including corporations, as the Board deems appropriate;
(6)loan, lease, or otherwise make available to public, private, and nonprofit educational institutions, and State arts councils established pursuant to the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965 [20 U.S.C. 951 et seq.], such exhibitions, programs, presentations, and material developed pursuant to clause (1)(D) of this subsection as the Board deems appropriate; and
(7)develop and implement other appropriate programs to preserve, support, revitalize, and disseminate American folklife.
(b)The Librarian shall carry out his functions under this subchapter through the Center.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

The National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965, referred to in subsec. (a)(6), is Pub. L. 89–209, Sept. 29, 1965, 79 Stat. 845, which is classified principally to subchapter I (§ 951 et seq.) of chapter 26 of this title. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see

Short Title

note set out under section 951 of this title and Tables.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

20 U.S.C. § 2104

Title 20Education

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73