Powers and Duties of Council: Responsibility for Certain Functions. The Commonwealth Library Council shall have the following powers and be responsible for the following functions: (a) Establish a depository for newspapers published in the Commonwealth thus providing a central location for a valuable historical record for scholarly, personal, and commercial reference and research; (b) Establish a Commonwealth publications clearinghouse which will be responsible for the collection of Commonwealth government publications, their distribution to depository libraries and ensuring their accessibility to the public; (c) Adopt a recommended budget and submit it to the Governor; (d) Endeavor to obtain federal funds which may be available to libraries and resource sharing networks; (e) Accept by gift, devise, or bequest, funds or other property from public and nonpublic sources and to dispose of such funds and property for the benefit of the Commonwealth libraries; (f) Accept and expend in accordance with the terms thereof any grant of federal or private funds which may become available to the Commonwealth for library related purposes; including but not limited to the United States Library Services and Construction Act [20 U.S.C. §§ 351 et seq.]. For the purpose of qualifying to receive such grants, the Library Council is authorized to make such applications and reports as may be required by the federal government or appropriate private entity as condition thereto; (g) Provide for library and information services to all persons throughout the Commonwealth including those who are blind and/or physically handicapped; (h) Make studies and surveys of library and information service facilities and services throughout the Commonwealth; (i) Facilitate and oversee desirable interlibrary cooperative agreements with libraries within and outside the Commonwealth; (j) Appoint a public library director; (k) Establish, maintain, and operate a central union catalog of all available library materials in the Commonwealth; (l) Facilitate information and resource sharing among the commonwealth’s libraries, present and future; (m) Serve as a primary interlibrary loan, information, reference, and referral center for libraries in the Commonwealth; and (n) Make all necessary rules and regulations to carry out the purposes of this chapter. Source: PL 7-18, § 5; (j) amended by PL 20-14 § 3 (Sept. 26, 2017), modified. Commission Comment: See the comment to 3 CMC § 1502.
In codifying PL 20-14, the commission changed “an” to “a” before “public library director” in (j) pursuant to 1 CMC § 3806(g).