90. The method of using this book is very simple. If there are ten assistants or under, one page only is used, each member of the staff receiving an appropriate number. If there are more than ten assistants two pages must be used, the numbers on the second page having the figure 1 prefixed to them, and the 10 being altered to 20. Thus page 2 will appear as 11, 12, 13, 14, etc. If there are more than twenty assistants a third page can be used, the existing numbers having 2 prefixed as before.

Each assistant on arriving or departing enters on the “Time-Sheet” his or her exact time in the spaces reserved, beginning the day with the first column. The assistants who check and tidy a to d in the mornings write their initials opposite the particular duty, while those who attend to the charging system, date stamps, overdues and cash for change also initial the item, the amount of change being stated. Against each assistant’s number is written his or her duties for the day. The first page or pages of the work book should be reserved as a key, and the names of the assistants should be written against the numbers which represent them. The column “New Orders” is for new instructions for all the staff. These should be entered briefly in red ink from the bottom towards the top of the page. The Notes lines will receive all items specified and any other notable incidents occurring in the course of each day, such as “Breakdown of Electric Light,” “Drunken man expelled,” etc. The work book must be kept in one recognized place, and every assistant should be held responsible for entering up his own notes and time. Any note of a general kind must be entered by the senior officer present on duty. The work book should be submitted to the chief librarian every morning.

9″
14″ Date
Time-Sheet.Daily Checks.
Arr.Dep.Arr.Dep.Arr.Dep.Department.Initial.
1 aReference
2 bLending
3 cReading Room
4 dJuvenile
5 eOverdues
6 fCharging System
7 gChange (money)
8 h
9 j
10 k
New
Orders.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Notes.--[Callers, Complaints, Errors, Lost or Found Property, etc.]

Fig. 7.—Staff Work Book ([Section 89]).

91. Salaries.

91. Salaries.—Salaries are the most difficult question the library profession has to meet. Up to the present few library workers have been paid more than a living wage, and many have received barely that. It is obvious that increases in this direction are essential in the new conditions; but it is equally obvious that no library should spend so much in salaries that it is unable to purchase new books or to administer them. We saw in [Section 31] that the average amount spent on salaries in the United Kingdom was about 42 per cent. of the entire income; and the staff, including the chief librarian, must be recompensed from the sum represented. The following figures show what was paid in the various positions in 1911:—

Income
of
Library
Authority.		Librarians
in Charge.		Senior
Assistants.		Junior
Assistants.
££££
500-1,00073-10046-8019-52
1,000-1,50054-6558-9019-52
1,500-2,00084-12077-12524-65
2,000-3,00078-18084-9520-60
3,000-4,000122-25065-10026-80
4,000-5,000107-16090-13026-65
5,000-10,000148-225100-17029-78
10,000 and over95-160108-17026-56

Fig. 8.—Salaries paid in 1911.

It will be seen that these “actual” figures are full of anomalies and divergences, and the inadequacy of payment they reveal is in some grades positively remarkable. The European War has produced conditions under which it is impossible for many of these payments to sustain life, and the case for better payment is an imperative one. At the same time the argument is not for increased salaries out of present library means, but for increased library means wherewith to pay increased salaries. Any other course, in present circumstances, would lead many libraries into bankruptcy. Salaries are subject to deduction, in the case of assistants earning less than £250 per annum, for National Health Insurance; and in some towns having superannuation schemes, contributions, amounting on the average to 21⁄2 per cent., are exacted for that purpose.