2 U.S.C. § 179m — Duties of Librarian of Congress

(a) Powers (1) In general: After talking with the Board set up under section 179n, the Librarian must: (A) keep running the national film preservation program created by the 1992 Act, working with archivists, educators, historians, copyright owners, and film-industry people. This program must (i) coordinate the work of archivists, copyright owners, and others so efforts are not wasted, (ii) build public awareness and support, (iii) make films easier to access for education, and (iv) study film-preservation practices, including new technology, and recommend improvements. (B) set the criteria and process for adding films to the National Film Registry — except that a film cannot be added until 10 years after it was first released. (C) set up a way for the public to recommend films to the Board for the Registry. (D) decide which films meet the criteria in (B) and qualify for the Registry — but the Librarian may not pick more than 25 films per year. (2) Publication of films in Registry: the Librarian must publish the name of each selected film in the Federal Register. (3) Seal: the Librarian must create a seal showing that a film is the official Registry version, and must set the rules (under subsection (b)) for approving its use. (b) Use of seal The seal may only be used on film copies that are the actual Registry version, and only after the Librarian approves the person applying it, following the guidelines from (a)(3). For copyrighted, mass-distributed, broadcast, or published works, only the copyright owner or an authorized licensee may place the seal — except the Librarian may place it on any Registry-version copy held in the Library's own National Film Registry Collection. Anyone authorized to use the seal may add this statement: "This film was selected for inclusion in the National Film Registry by the National Film Preservation Board of the Library of Congress because of its cultural, historical, or aesthetic significance." The Librarian may also let the Library or others use the seal for other limited purposes, to promote the Registry when showing or sharing its films. (c) Coordination of program with other collection, preservation, and accessibility activities While running the national film preservation program, the Librarian — working with the Board — must: (1) make Registry films more accessible for research and education, and build public awareness of the Registry and the wider preservation program; (2) review and, if needed, update the national film preservation plan to address new technology for preserving, storing, and accessing films in different formats; and (3) whenever possible, expand efforts to preserve America's moving-image history — film, videotape, television, and digital-born formats — by supporting the Library's National Audio-Visual Conservation Center and other qualified nonprofit archive and preservation groups.