(1)    It is the purpose of this section to establish a more economical system of handling federal documents in this state in such a way as to effect savings of staff and space to the participating libraries, both state and local; to make such documents more available to more of the people, colleges and libraries of the state, in accordance with the purposes of the federal depository act of 1895 and the needs of the citizens of the state; and to make possible substantial economies in the publication costs of such documents at the federal level as well. To this end the state documents depository established by s. 44.06 may acquire and establish a central state depository and loan collection of federal documents for the benefit of the University of Wisconsin System, the state law library, the depository libraries and such other college and public libraries in this state as may desire to share in the benefits of this loan collection.

   (2)   The University of Wisconsin System and the public and other participating libraries, federal regulations permitting, may transfer outright or may loan indefinitely to this central depository any or all federal documents now in their possession which in their opinion are so little used for ready reference purposes as to make their retention unnecessary if copies are available on loan from the central depository loan collection.

   (3)   Documents so transferred may be used by the society to furnish participating libraries with items needed for their permanent reference collections, for the central loan collection, or for exchange, trade or sale in order to make more complete and useful the central loan collection established by this section.

   (4)   The board of curators may promulgate such rules governing the loan of books from the central depository loan collection and may make such charges to cover shipping costs as may be deemed necessary and advisable.