The following salary scale for junior and senior assistants has been used in smaller libraries whose incomes exceed £1000:—
| Juniors— | 1st | year | £26 | 0 | 0 |
| 2nd | „ | 31 | 4 | 0 | |
| 3rd | „ | 36 | 8 | 0 | |
| 4th | „ | 41 | 12 | 0 | |
| Seniors— | 1st | „ | 52 | 0 | 0 |
| 2nd | „ | 62 | 0 | 0 | |
| 3rd | „ | 72 | 0 | 0 | |
| 4th | „ | 82 | 0 | 0 | |
| 5th | „ | 92 | 0 | 0 | |
| 6th | „ | 104 | 0 | 0 |
(Thus, an assistant must, as a rule, wait ten years in order to earn two pounds a week!) All salaries, whether paid monthly or weekly, should not be subject to any deduction on account of absences from illness (except in so far as the matter is governed by National Health Insurance rules), holidays, or other causes. The annual increases should only be granted provided the report of the chief librarian is satisfactory. No assistant should be allowed to hold the view that increases in salary are automatic and not dependent upon satisfactory service. It is a good plan to arrange for the whole of the staff increases to become due at the same date, so that they can all be considered at one meeting of the committee.
92. Vacation.
92. Vacation.—The time granted for annual holidays ranges from three weeks or more for deputy librarians and departmental librarians to one week for juniors. A week or ten days is not sufficient for rest and change, and a fortnight is the minimum that should be allowed.
93. Staff Training.
93. Staff Training.—In present circumstances every library should have a definite official system of training for its staff, and every assistance in and inducement to study should be given. The low salaries paid in libraries demand that assistants shall at least receive in part return the best equipment that can be given them. The first essential is general education approximating to matriculation, and definite study of literature should be required from the first year. Where such training has not been acquired previously, junior assistants should be required to read in such manner that they may at the age of sixteen take the Preliminary Test offered by the Library Association, and no assistant should be retained permanently, in his own interests as well as in those of the library, who is unable to pass that Test. Not until the Test is passed should assistants be encouraged to study the more technical divisions of the Library Association syllabus. Chief librarians should supervise the training of the whole staff and hold periodical brief examinations to convince themselves that it is being pursued systematically. Every librarian-in-charge should be held responsible for directing the studies of his subordinates, and in small libraries the deputy-librarian should assume this duty. Some libraries have staff guilds which hold regular classes, sometimes with outside teachers in special subjects; and the plan is to be commended. All books that may be required should be provided by the library, and class fees and examination expenses are paid in many towns—a method which deserves universal adoption. Every professional certificate won should command some financial recompense, however small; and, other things being equal, promotion should be given only to assistants who hold certificates. In a few libraries, but in an increasing number, a certain amount of study is allowed in official hours; this is a matter of time-sheet arrangement, as sporadic reading in ordinary library hours is not to be encouraged.
94. The Library Economy Library.
94. The Library Economy Library.—The foundation of all training is a collection of works on library economy and bibliography. A library without this is not properly equipped, and some libraries have much to seek in the matter. Every recognized text-book on the theory and practice of every department of librarianship, all library periodicals, the best examples of catalogues, bulletins, reading lists, annual reports, and the standard bibliographies, should be available on the freest conditions to the whole staff. Some libraries set apart a definite fund for the purchase of such works; and its expenditure is one of the best ultimate economies in which a committee can engage. Moreover, the institution which ostensibly provides the literature of all other professions is obviously in a ridiculous position if it does not provide the literature of librarianship. In [Appendix II.] we give a list of the works which should form the professional collection of every library of average size; and even small libraries should endeavour to become possessed of the majority of them.