2021 Georgia Code
Title 20 - Education
Chapter 5 - Libraries
Article 2 - Local and Regional Public Libraries
Part 1 - City Public Libraries
§ 20-5-20. Power of City to Tax and Appropriate for Library Purposes; Election of Trustees to Control Library Funds
Any city, through its properly constituted municipal authorities, may raise by taxation from year to year and permanently appropriate money for the purpose of establishing, erecting, maintaining, or assisting in maintaining a public library. Any such sum or sums of money so appropriated shall be expended by and under the direction of a board of trustees of such public library elected by the city council of such city.
(Ga. L. 1901, p. 52, § 1; Ga. L. 1904, p. 90, § 1; Civil Code 1910, § 1566; Code 1933, § 32-2701.)
Cross references.- General power of municipal corporation to construct and operate libraries, § 36-34-3.
Law reviews.- For article, "Cities and Towns in Georgia: A Distinction with a Difference?," see 14 Mercer L. Rev. 385 (1963).
JUDICIAL DECISIONS
City must operate public library in accordance with law.
- While the establishment and operation of a public library by a city is permissive, a city having once established and undertaken the operation of a library must operate the library in accordance with the requirements of the general law. Settelmayer v. Hartsfield, 216 Ga. 246, 115 S.E.2d 520 (1960).
No custom, acts, or courses of conduct could nullify the general law as to operation of a city public library. Settelmayer v. Hartsfield, 216 Ga. 246, 115 S.E.2d 520 (1960).
OPINIONS OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
Employees of Atlanta Public Library not considered "teachers."
- Because of the distinction between city and noncity libraries, the fact that the Atlanta City Charter governs the composition, powers, and duties of the library board and because the teachers retirement provisions specify "regional or county" libraries and do not specifically include "municipal" libraries, the Atlanta Public Library is a municipal library and, as such, the library's employees are not considered "teachers" as defined in the teachers retirement provisions for purposes of membership in the Teachers Retirement System of Georgia. 1978 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 78-14.
RESEARCH REFERENCES
Am. Jur. 2d.
- 56 Am. Jur. 2d, Municipal Corporations, Counties, and Other Political Subdivisions, §§ 102, 324, 325, 517, 518.
C.J.S.- 16D C.J.S., Constitutional Law, §§ 1959, 1960. 64A C.J.S., Municipal Corporations, § 2026.
