The question of hours, salaries and vacations can be answered only in a general way. The gauge by which we examine the running of the human machinery entrusted to us should be read with sympathy, and we should set a pace that we can hold the entire day or the working period of a normal life. Speaking for our own institution, we adhere to the 42-hour weekly schedule with provision for a weekly half-holiday. Evening work should certainly never exceed the number three in any one week and personally I'm leaning toward the more desirable two evenings a week. Where a special evening force is employed the recommendation of course, does not apply.
The restroom and the kitchenette are now so generally established as to be past the stage of argument. These restrooms should be well equipped and no niggardly considerations should stand in the way of making them neat, airy and inviting in order to afford comfort and relaxation. The appearance and atmosphere of the restroom should banish the dull sense of drudgery and evoke the gentler side of life.
The half-holiday and vacation should be provided, not so much because a faithful servant has earned a rest, but because without it life means living at a low level, with the certain result of deadening one's faculties, ambition and alertness, whereas these should all grow with one's experience and work. Certainly a month's vacation in the course of a year is a minimum respite in any professional activity of confined nature and mental concentration. We must consider the weight of the statement made by Luther H. Gulick that, "growth is predominantly a function of rest and that the best work that most of us do is not in our offices or at our desks, but when we are wandering in the woods, or sitting quietly with undirected thoughts." Those who are entrusted with the responsibility of supervising the daily toil of others should so govern that each individual remains "master of his own work and not its slave."
Just a few words as to the rate of compensation prevailing in the library profession today. In so far as the city of Detroit is concerned, the scale of wages now in operation and adopted some three years ago, was based on the salaries paid in the public schools which seems a fitting arrangement inasmuch as our public library is an outgrowth of, and, as to appointment of trustees, still under the control of the Municipal Board of Education. The professional training and executive skill required in a librarian of today make it seem reasonable that his or her compensation should be fairly at par with the salaries paid in other city departments where professional training is among the requisites, such as Department of City Engineer, City Attorney, Municipal Museum, Superintendent of Public Instruction, Principal of a High School, etc. Our salary schedule based upon the schedule applying to principals and teachers in our local public schools operates in parts as follows:
Heads of departments to receive the same pay as principals of eight room schools.
Branch librarians to receive the same pay as principals of seven room schools.
First assistants to heads of departments to receive a salary corresponding with that of assistants to principals of schools. In the same manner the schedule applies to the rank and file, promotions being given semi-annually, based on seniority and service record.
That this regulation would apply satisfactorily in other municipalities is questionable, as may be deduced from a statement made by one congressman, who, in discussing the salaries paid the school teachers in the city of Washington remarked with blunt sympathy that "the policemen were paid more to crash the skulls of the children in Washington than the teachers were paid for putting something into them."
To maintain the efficiency of the library staff it is necessary not only to consider the welfare of the individual during his working hours but to provide such material regard for his day's toil that his vitality and enjoyment of life may be conserved by having the means to afford the necessary comfort and social status consistent with our profession.
To consider the importance of personal appearance, neatness in dress in our service with the public is simply to recognize the point of view of the library patron whose opinion is worth while, and how are we to exact this showing of "fine front" if we do not defray the cost thereof?
It is difficult, if not physiologically unsound, to speak about the mental conservation of the library staff apart from its physical maintenance, but in considering the former I would invite your attention to what Mr. P. W. Goldsbury so aptly calls "the recreation through the senses." Mr. Goldsbury remarks, "the importance of our understanding, the wide range of the functions of our senses, the influence of our surroundings and the manner in which they react on our minds." He illustrates his point by quoting the saying that "for horses the hardest road out of London is the most level one. There are no hills to climb and descend, and the tired horse has no chance to rest one set of muscles while another works. Monotony produces fatigue; and because this particular road is one dead, monotonous level, more horses give out on it than on any other road leading out of London." Irresistibly the moral of the canvas before us breaks in upon our individual sense of self-preservation and our responsibility for the welfare of others. For economic as well as for humanitarian reasons it behooves us to so apportion the day's work that one's senses are exercised one after another and through interchange of duties and tasks, not only one's body but one's mind is given a variety of exercise and impressions. The rotation of duties every two hours in departments where direct service with the public is given, will, I believe, be found to afford some relaxation and wholesome change to attendants on duty, especially so, if the change afford the alternative of stationary position and moving about.
We all know how one's mind, spirit, aye, even nerves are affected by objects within our vision, the feeling of depression that benumbs us when our eyes rest on dingy colors and ugly outlines, when we dwell in gloomy quarters or poorly ventilated rooms. Architects and librarians will find that the efficiency of the human machinery housed within the library walls will be maintained at its best if beautiful effects in color and design of interior decorations are features of the library equipment, if daylight is abundant, furnishings tasteful, atmospheric conditions invigorating—let us sometimes have even the fragrance and color-play of flowers. The capacity of our senses for higher development is nourished by the stimulus from the outside world which brings to us, often unconsciously, mental and physical refreshment and recreation. The occasional relaxation in the day's work contributes to a reasonable mental and physical balance, even the occasional conversation during working hours may well be tolerated, certainly any undue restriction thereof will do more harm than good.