42 U.S.C. § 286b–6 — Grants and contracts for establishment of regional medical libraries

(a) Existing public or private nonprofit medical libraries. The Secretary, advised by the Board, makes grants to and signs contracts with existing public or private nonprofit medical libraries, so each can serve as the regional medical library for its geographic area. (b) Uses for grants and contracts. This money may pay for: (1) buying books, journals, and similar materials; (2) cataloging, binding, and other processing work; (3) buying duplicating devices and other equipment; (4) buying equipment and hiring staff so materials move quickly from the regional library out to local libraries in the area; and (5) planning services and activities under this section. (c) Conditions. Grants and contracts only go to libraries that agree to two things: (A) to grow and improve their own resources, and supplement the resources of cooperating libraries in the region, so the whole region — and individual users — get adequate library service; and (B) to offer free loans to qualified users, and to give out photocopies or facsimile copies of biomedical materials that qualified requesters can keep. The Secretary gives priority to libraries with the best chance of meeting regional needs, weighing (A) how adequate the library already is — its collections, staff, equipment, and facilities — as a foundation for a regional library, and (B) the size and nature of the population the region would serve. (d) Basic resources materials; limitation on grant or contract. Grants and contracts for basic resource materials cannot exceed half of the library's yearly operating expenses — not counting federal money already received under this part — from the year before. For a library's first year getting this kind of grant, the cap is instead 50 percent of its average yearly operating expenses over the past three years, or, if it's been open less than three years, 50 percent of whatever annual operating expense the Secretary calculates by regulation.