1678                             Laws of Maryland                      [Ch. 770

IN ADVANCE OF EXPENDITURE AND MAY BE PAID
ACCORDING TO PROCEDURES ESTABLISHED BY THE STATE
SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS. SUCH AMOUNTS AS ARE
PROVIDED FOR CAPITAL EXPENDITURES PURSUANT TO
THE PROVISIONS OF THE SECTION SHALL BE CONSIDERED
AS PART OF THE GENERAL STATE SCHOOL FUND AND
NOTWITHSTANDING SECTION 124 OF THIS ARTICLE SHALL
BE SUBJECT TO THE ANNUAL REVIEW AND APPROPRIA-
TION BY THE GOVERNOR AND THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

168 169.

(a) Regional Resource Centers

(1) Any three or more public library systems outside the stan-
dard metropolitan statistical areas as defined by the United States
Bureau of the Census, acting through their several boards of library
trustees, may request the State Department of Education to establish
and maintain a regional resource center for the purpose of providing
through mutual cooperation and coordination books, information, and
other material and service resources which an individual library
could not adequately provide by itself THE CRITERIA FOR A
REGIONAL RESOURCE CENTER INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING:

(1)  A REGION SHOULD COMPRISE THREE OR MORE
COUNTIES AND HAVE A POPULATION OF AT LEAST 100,000
PERSONS AND PREFERABLY 200,000.

(II)  WHENEVER POSSIBLE THE STRONGEST EXISTING
LIBRARY IN THE AREA SHOULD BE SELECTED AS THE
REGIONAL RESOURCE CENTER.

(III)  THE REGIONAL RESOURCE CENTER SHOULD BE SO
LOCATED AS TO BE OF GREATEST SERVICE TO ALL POINTS
IN THE REGION.

(2)    Any library designated as a regional resource center shall be
chosen by the several boards of library trustees of participating
library systems and the State Department of Education. The board of
trustees of the designated library shall agree to perform as many of
the services provided for in subsection (a) (3) of this section, m
necessary to meet the standards and criteria of the State Department
of Education. The criteria for a regional resource center include the
following:

    (i) A region should comprise three or more counties and have a

population of at least 100,000 persons and preferably 200,000.

(ii) Whenever possible the strongest existing library in the area
should be selected as the regional resource center.

(iii) The regional resource center should be so located as to be of

greatest service to all points in the region.

(iv) It should build toward a collection of not less than 100,000

currently useful adult titles.

(3) The regional resource center shall render as many of the
following services for the libraries in the region as required by the
standards and criteria of the State Department of Education: