The State Librarian may do all of the following:

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

(b) Appoint or employ civil service personnel as necessary to carry out the purposes of this chapter.

(c) Sell or exchange duplicate copies of books.

(d) Purchase and maintain materials and equipment as necessary to carry out California State Library programs and services consistent with well-established library standards.

(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 California State 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 the State Librarian’s discretion, deposit stations in various parts of the state, under the control of an officer or employee of the California State Library. A book shall not be kept permanently away from the main library, which may be required for official use. Books and other materials that are not required by law to be delivered to or filed with another agency from public libraries and other cultural heritage institutions of the state may be accepted for deposit, under agreements entered into by the State Librarian and the libraries or institutions 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 California State Library. Cultural heritage institutions include, but are not limited to, archives, galleries, historical societies, libraries, museums, and tribal nations.

(h) Collect, preserve, and disseminate information regarding the history of the state, including materials that represent the stories of Californians in an equal, diverse, and inclusive manner.

(i) Authorize the California State Library to serve as regional library for the blind and print disabled, 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 California 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, and to maintain and make accessible, through digital or physical means, the publications created by state government.

(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 the State Librarian’s discretion, with other public libraries in the state to give public services of the types referred to in subdivisions (g) and (l), when service by contract appears to be a needed supplement to the facilities and services carried on directly by the California State Library.

(o) Digitally preserve books and other physical materials and provide a digital platform to expand access to the California State Library’s collection.

(Amended by Stats. 2021, Ch. 666, Sec. 12. (AB 486) Effective January 1, 2022.)