The West Virginia Library Commission shall have the following powers for the establishment and maintenance of regional areas and regional libraries:

(a) To establish, maintain, and operate a public library for the region;

(b) To appoint a librarian and the necessary assistants, and to fix their compensation, such appointments to be based upon merit and efficiency as determined by the commission. The librarian shall hold a certificate from an approved school of library science and shall have had not less than three years of practical experience in library work. Said Library Commission shall also have the power to remove said librarian and other assistants;

(c) To purchase books, periodicals, equipment and supplies;

(d) To purchase sites and erect buildings, and/or to lease suitable quarters, and to have supervision and control of said property;

(e) To borrow books from and lend books to other libraries;

(f) To enter into contracts to receive service from or give service to libraries within or without the region and to give service to municipalities without the region which have no libraries, or to cooperate with and aid generally without such contracts, public school, institutional and other libraries;

(g) To make such bylaws, rules and regulations not inconsistent with this article as may be expedient for the government of such regional library areas and the regional libraries therein, and for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this article;

(h) To accept for the State of West Virginia any appropriations of money that may hereafter be made out of the federal treasury by an act or acts of Congress and to disburse such funds for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this article, in accordance with sections eleven and twelve, article ten, chapter eighteen of the code of one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended.