The State Librarian may do all of the following:

(a) Make rules and regulations, not inconsistent with law, for the government of the State Library.

(b) Appoint assistants as necessary.

(c) Sell or exchange duplicate copies of books.

(d) Keep in order and repair the books and property in the library.

(e) Prescribe rules and regulations permitting persons other than Members of the Legislature and other state officers to have the use of books from the library.

(f) Collect and preserve statistics and other information pertaining to libraries, which shall be available to other libraries within the state applying for the information.

(g) Establish, in his or her discretion, deposit stations in various parts of the state, under the control of an officer or employee of the State Library. No book shall be kept permanently away from the main library, which may be required for official use. Books and other library materials from public libraries of the state may be accepted for deposit, under agreements entered into by the State Librarian and the public libraries concerned, whereby materials that should be preserved but are rarely used in the region may be stored and made available for use under the same conditions that apply to materials in the State Library.

(h) Collect, preserve, and disseminate information regarding the history of the state.

(i) Authorize the State Library to serve as regional library for the blind, in cooperation with the Library of Congress.

(j) Give advisory, consultive, and technical assistance with respect to public libraries to librarians and library authorities, and assist all other authorities, state and local, in assuming their full responsibility for library services.

(k) Authorize the State Library to serve as the central reference and research library for the departments of state government and maintain adequate legislative reference and research library services for the Legislature.

(l) Acquire, organize and supply books and other library informational and reference materials to supplement the collections of other public libraries of the state with the more technical, scientific and scholarly works, to the end that through an established interlibrary loan system, the people of the state shall have access to the full range of reference and informational materials.

(m) Make studies and surveys of public library needs and adopt rules and regulations for the allocation of federal funds to public libraries.

(n) Contract, at his or her discretion, with other public libraries in the state to give public services of the types referred to in subdivisions (g) and (l) of this section, when service by contract appears to be a needed supplement to the facilities and services carried on directly by the State Library.

(Amended by Stats. 1987, Ch. 1452, Sec. 118.)