86. Sunday Work.—Some libraries remain open on Sundays and on public holidays, usually for a part of the day. About half of these pay extra remuneration for hours worked on these days; others allow time off through the week for it; and in one or two places Hebrew assistants are specially employed for Sunday duty.
87. Junior Assistant.
87. Junior Assistant.—The work of the assistant in his first library years is largely mechanical: the preparing of books for circulating; labelling, card-writing, tagging; keeping shelves in order and replacing returned books; charging and issue-desk work of the simpler kind. There is much work in every library of this unskilled character which forms a useful training in business habits, order, regularity, etc. It is unfortunate, however, that the smallness of staffs often makes it necessary to put the work of issuing books to readers in the hands of juniors. The actual charging of books is indeed a mechanical process, but its performance is carried out at one of the main points of contact with the public where knowledge and experience are of great value. Larger libraries have, as a rule, departmental staffs which are confined to the work of the particular department to which they are accredited. This is undoubtedly the most business-like and economical method; but every assistant should be given the opportunity of learning the work of every department and should be required to do so. This may be done by transferring the assistants at not too lengthy intervals. In smaller libraries this departmental division does not exist, and an assistant may work in the lending library in the morning, in the reference library in the evening, and at a branch to-morrow, just as the exigencies of the service dictate.
88. Senior Assistant.
88. Senior Assistant.—The name senior assistant is bestowed upon assistants with a few years’ experience and training, including as a rule the possession of two or more certificates of the Library Association. They occupy a position somewhat analogous to that of non-commissioned officers, and act as reliefs to the librarians-in-charge. Often they are made responsible for some branch of the routine, as, for example, book-binding, defaulters, registration of borrowers, etc., and this is a good method, provided that any one assistant is not confined rigidly and for too long to one task. A sense of responsibility is a useful quality which can be fostered in this way. Usually senior assistants are promoted from the junior staff, but not always; and it is becoming a general condition of promotion to this grade that the candidate shall have taken some part of the Library Association course. Promotion should never be made unless the candidate has shown a disposition to qualify in some such manner.
89. Work Book.
89. Work Book.—It is a good plan to use a work book or duty book, in which the daily duties of each assistant can be entered. By means of such a book it is easy to change the work about, in order to give every assistant an opportunity of doing everything in turn; and it is necessary because of the changes worked on the composition of the staff by the time-sheet. A good form of work book for a library where the staff is not departmental is shown in the ruling [below], which can be adjusted to meet the conditions in large libraries. The names or numbers of the assistants are written or printed in the margin, and against these the particular duty, or set of duties, to be performed that day are written. This book is generally made up by the deputy-librarian and checked by the librarian. In small libraries the librarian can write up this record. Apart from its value as a simple means of distributing and fixing duties, it makes a capital record of visitors or callers, errors, absences of staff, progress of certain pieces of work, checks of various kinds, and may even be used as a staff time-book. The form given on [page 92] ([Fig. 7]) is a guide to the work of a library and a check upon results. For convenience’ sake the assistants are numbered in order of seniority.