H. Is the assistant loyal to the library? I. Has the assistant enthusiasm in her work? J. Would you be satisfied to have the assistant in your (Branch) (Dept.), not considering the fact that you might prefer some one else? L. Remarks. Date Signature Title MAL-EMPLOYMENT IN THE LIBRARY[12] Students of the labor problem have given a vast amount of attention to the unemployed, but comparatively little to the mal-employed. It troubles them--and very properly--that there should be large numbers of persons who are doing no work, who are contributing nothing toward the operation of the world’s machinery; they do not seem to be so greatly bothered that there are persons hard at work to no purpose or with evil result--whose efforts either do not help the world along or actually impede it or hold it back. Serious as is the case of those who are not employed at all, it is as nothing compared with those who are employed badly. One reason for this neglect--which is at the same time a reason why it should no longer exist--is that the burden of unemployment bears most conspicuously on the individual, while that of mal-employment is predominantly civic. It is true that unemployment works civic injury, and that mal-employment, especially if it be criminal, is recognized at once as a possible harm to the individual. But what I mean is that the unemployed person, unless he is one of the idle rich, is greatly concerned about his lack of employment, which touches his pocket directly. He does all that he can to get back into the ranks of the employed, but once there it does not occur to him to ask whether what he is doing benefits society, or is of no value to it, or actually harms it. Even if he does so inquire, he is not likely to give up a job that pays him well simply because what he is doing is injurious to the world’s progress. The injury done is social and civic and we must look to increased social and civic consciousness for its abatement.