Page:Library Administration, 1898.djvu/53

 receive on an average 3000 marks (£150) yearly, and the schoolmasters 3150 marks (£157, 10s.) yearly. The officials in the Berlin archives get on an average 4800 marks, but the assistants in the Royal Library only 4500, and those in the University Library only 3600.

Again, the officials in the archives get promoted from one place to another, while those in the libraries can only get promoted in the establishments to which they are attached. As regards hours of work, the librarians and officials of archives have the same weekly total of thirty hours, so that the latter ought not to be more highly remunerated on that ground. The schoolmasters are supposed to work thirty-six hours a week, but then they get more than twice as long holidays. The librarians, too, are expected to use some of their spare time in making themselves more fitted for their work, so it would not be politic to increase their official hours.

The complaints of the Prussian librarians appear to have attracted the attention of the Government, for in the Prussian budget of 1896–97 not only the general grants to the libraries appear for increased amounts, but the salaries also are improved all round. As an instance may be taken the Berlin Library, in which the keepers of departments are to have a salary rising from 6000 to 7200 marks (the increment being spread over nine years), instead of remaining stationary at 6000 marks.

It is, we suppose, a source of gratification to Prussian librarians that by a recent Royal decree