Page:Library Administration, 1898.djvu/41

 little difference appears to be made in the remuneration of the two sexes. The public libraries of Bristol and Manchester are distinguished by the number of women assistants employed in them. It was announced at the International Library Conference, 1897, that there were thirty-four posts in the latter library filled by women.

The presents the singular feature in the constitution of its staff, that young boys form a considerable portion of it. The details of this arrangement cannot be better described than in the words of the librarian (Mr. Nicholson): —

"The boys are of two classes. Each class works six hours a day, and receives ten shillings a week. The smaller class is employed only for special work of an almost purely mechanical kind, such as pasting and labelling, and for admission to this only a fair English education is required. The boys in the larger class, called under-assistants, are taught cataloguing, and receive every kind of work to which they can prove themselves adequate: no boy is admitted to this class unless he can construe fairly well at sight passages from an easy Latin and an easy French author. No boy is admitted to either class under the age of thirteen, nor over that of fifteen and a half.

"For several years the librarian gave to under-assistants a special training beyond that furnished by their' official work. They were expected to spend part of their private time in going through a very varied course of study; they were examined once a fortnight by the librarian, usually after library hours, and they were rewarded with holidays