Sec. 1043a. To authorize cities and incorporated towns
to establish and maintain free public libraries and
reading rooms.
(1) The council of each incorporated city and town shall have
power to establish and maintain a public library and reading
room for the use and benefit of the inhabitants of such city or
town, and may levy a tax not to exceed one mill on the dollar
annually on all taxable property in the city or town, such tax to
be levied and collected in like manner with other general taxes
of said city, and to be known as the library fund.
(2) When any city or town council shall have decided to establish
and maintain a public library and reading room under
this act, the mayor of such city or town shall, with the approval
of the council, proceed to appoint a board of nine directors for
the same, chosen from the citizens at large with reference to
their fitness for such office, and not more than one member of
the council shall be at any one time a member of said board, and
he shall be the chairman of the committee on finance of said
council, and the city superintendent of public schools shall also
be a member of said board.
(3) Said directors shall hold office—one-third for one year,
one-third for two years, and one-third for three years—from
the date of their appointment, and at their first regular meeting
shall cast lots for their respective terms, and annually thereafter
the mayor shall appoint, as before, three directors, to take
the place of the retiring directors, who shall hold office for
three years and until their successors are appointed. The mayor
may, by and with the consent of the council, remove any director
for misconduct or neglect of duty.
(4) Vacancies in the board of directors, occasioned by removal,
resignation or otherwise, shall be reported to the council,
and be filled in like manner as original appointments, and
no director shall receive compensation as such.
(5) Said directors shall, immediately after appointment,
meet and organize by the election of one of their number president,
and by the election of such other officers as they may
deem necessary. They shall make and adopt such by-laws, rules
and regulations for their own guidance, and for the government
of the library and reading room, as may be expedient and may
be not inconsistent with this act. They shall have the exclusive
control of the expenditure of all moneys collected to the
credit of the library fund, and of the construction of any library
building, and of the supervision, care and custody of the ground,
rooms or buildings constructed, leased or set apart for that purpose:
provided, that all moneys received for such library shall
be deposited in the treasury of said city to the credit of the library
fund, and shall be kept separate and apart from other
moneys of such city, and drawn upon by the proper officers of
said city upon the properly authenticated vouchers of the library
board. Said board shall have power to purchase or lease ground,
to occupy, lease or erect an appropriate building or buildings for
the use of said library; shall have power to appoint a suitable
librarian and necessary assistants, and fix their compensation;
and shall also have power to remove such appointees; and shall,
in general, carry out the spirit and intent of this act in establishing
and maintaining a public library and reading room.
(6) Every library and reading room established under this
act shall be forever free to the use of the inhabitants where located,
always subject to such reasonable rules and regulations
as the library board may adopt; and said board may exclude
from the use of said library and reading room any and all persons
who shall wilfully violate such rules.
(7) The said board of directors shall make, at the end of each
and every year, from and after the organization of such library,
a report to the city or town council, stating the conditions of
their trust at the date of such report, the various sums of
money received from the library fund and from other sources,
and how such moneys have been expended, and for what purposes;
the number of books and periodicals on hand; the number
lost or missing; the number of visitors attending; the number
of books loaned out, and the general character and kind of
such books, with such other statistics, information and suggestions
as they may deem of general interest. All such portions of
said reports as relate to receipt and expenditure of money, as
well as the number of books on hand, books lost or missing, and
books purchased shall be verified by affidavit.
(8) The council of said city or town shall have power to
pass ordinances imposing suitable penalties for the punishment
of persons committing injury upon such library or the ground
or other property thereof, and for wilful injury to or failure to
return any book belonging to such library.
(9) The said board of directors shall be legally known and
designated as the board of directors of the public library of the
city (or town) of —, or as the board of directors of the
free reading rooms of the city (or town) of —, and as such
shall have power to take property, real or personal, by gift,
grant or devise. Any person desiring to make donations of
money, personal property, or real estate for the benefit of such
library, shall have the right to vest the title to (the) money
or real estate so donated in the board of directors by its proper
legal designation created under this act, to be held and controlled
by such board, when accepted, according to the terms of
the deed, gift, devise or bequest of such property; and, as to
such property, the members of said board shall be held and considered
to be special trustees.
