84. Hours.
84. Hours.—The last exhaustive inquiry into the hours worked by municipal library assistants was made by the Library Assistants’ Association in 1911, who embodied its results in a valuable report. Hours are naturally influenced by the prevailing length of working-time in commerce and in other walks of life. The average number worked in libraries in 1908 was 48 weekly; in 1911 it was 45·22; but the tendency is to make it 42 hours. The difficulties which face a librarian in arranging a time-sheet are that he has usually too small a staff, and cannot afford a larger one, and that the library is in many or all of its departments open from twelve to fourteen hours daily. This involves evening work on several days in the week, and means that the hours are irregular and broken. At the same time the nature of library work is exacting, and much more efficient work can be expected from a seven-hours’, or even shorter, day than from a longer one. Study, recreation and social experience are absolutely necessary for successful work; and time-sheets should be arranged to make these possible. There is no excuse whatever for the at one time prevailing time-sheets which required assistants to work from about 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. with an interval of 11⁄2 hours for dinner and a similar interval for tea. The librarian whose staff is so small that these hours are necessary to keep the library open is attempting at the expense of the health and whole natural life of his staff to do more work than the community has a right to expect. Even with the seven-hour day the broken hours involved form the least attractive feature of library work. The [time-sheet] suggested by the Library Assistants’ Association is given as a practical solution of some of the difficulties we have enumerated—not as an ideal but as the result of experience. It provides for a half-holiday weekly and for hours of recreation and study. It should be the aim to make the use of the sheet regular, so that every assistant may know what evenings, for example, he has at his disposal throughout the year. Modifications are sometimes made during the summer months, when the work is slacker, in the direction of giving the assistants more free time.
SUGGESTED TIME-SHEET (LIBRARY ASSISTANTS’ ASSOCIATION)
| 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | Thursday | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A | A | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| B | B | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| C | 8.45 | C | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| D | D | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| E | E | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| F | F | 8.45 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| G | G | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| H | H | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday | Friday | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A | A | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| B | B | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| C | C | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| D | 8.45 | D | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| E | E | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| F | F | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| G | G | 8.45 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| H | H | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wednesday | Saturday | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A | A | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| B | B | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| C | C | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| D | D | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| E | 8.45 | E | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| F | F | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| G | G | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| H | H | 8.45 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Fig. 6 ([Section 84]).
Hours of duty 42 per week. Each assistant has a half-day and an evening off, works one night until 10 o’clock, and comes on one morning at 8.45. The library is assumed to be open all the week, and where an early-closing day is in vogue, the time-sheet is simplified by confining nearly all the half-holidays to that day.
The time-sheet would be much improved if 5 p.m. were substituted for 6 p.m. on the evening off; an assistant leaving at 6, after he has had a meal, has very little evening left. It should be the endeavour so to adjust the sheet that each assistant is off every other evening, the half-day counting as one. Local circumstances will suggest variations, which can easily be made.
85.
85. The whole staff question, so far as junior assistants are concerned, may be modified by the Education Act of 1918. This has raised the age at which children may leave school, and requires of them part-study until the age of 18. Seeing that the juniors at present engaged are of 14 years and upwards, this may mean duplicate junior staffs, with accompanying problems of remuneration. It may be that specialized library training may be accepted in lieu of the continuation classes contemplated by the Act. But the matter is at present in a state of transition, and we can only indicate the new problem.