Mississippi Code Title 19. Counties and County Officers § 19-25-65. County librarian

The sheriff shall be the custodian of the books other than record books belonging to the county, and he shall keep the Mississippi Department Reports, census reports, statutes of the state, the “Mississippi Reports,” digests, and legislative journals assigned to his county in a suitable and safe bookcase in the courtroom of the courthouse.  He shall keep them well bound in leather, or stiff boards with leather back and corners, to be paid for out of the county treasury on the order of the board of supervisors, and he shall preserve them in good condition.  He shall be fined Ten Dollars ($10.00) by the court, either circuit or chancery, as for a contempt, for each volume belonging to the county and which has passed into his custody that shall be out of the courtroom at any term of court.  He shall also receive and preserve in the same way all books of every kind, maps, charts, and other like things that may be donated to the county by the state, the United States, from individuals or other sources.  He shall not permit any of the books in his keeping to be carried out of the courthouse.

The sheriff shall, in case of binding or rebinding of books belonging to the county, cause the statutes of the state to be labeled “Laws of Mississippi,” and the year of their enactment shall appear thereon.  If the reports and digests or code are rebound, they shall be labeled as they were originally.

In his settlement with the clerk of the board of supervisors for the month of December of each calendar year, the sheriff shall file with the said clerk a sworn itemized statement of the volumes of the Mississippi Reports on hand in the county library on the last business day of said month, and for all volumes missing since the settlement for the previous December the clerk shall debit the said sheriff in his said settlement at the rate of Four Dollars ($4.00) for each of said missing volumes.