=349. Hours.=--The number of hours during which municipal libraries should remain open to the public will vary according to the local conditions, staff and funds of every town and district. In small places, with scanty populations and little libraries with but one attendant, a few hours open at night on several days in the week, according to requirements, will serve every practical purpose. In towns of a fair size, of say from 10,000 to 30,000 people, the reading rooms should be open all day uninterruptedly from 10 to 9 or 10, but the lending library need only be kept open from 10 to 2 and from 5 to 9. In large towns of over 40,000 inhabitants, the libraries should remain open all day from early morning till late at night--say from 8 A.M. till 10 P.M. for newsrooms; 9 A.M. till 10 P.M. for reference libraries; 10 A.M. till 9 P.M. for lending libraries; and 4 till 8 P.M. for juvenile departments, if any. There should be no interruptions, at any rate so far as departments other than the lending library are concerned, to these services, either in the way of half- or whole-day closing to suit the staff, or any irregularity in hours. The public library is a bureau for the supply of information, and should be found open at any time in a working-day, during which people are likely to use its resources. In large towns there is no necessary connexion between the public hours and the staff, and in an important matter of this kind, which affects the convenience of hundreds of people, the policy of employing extra assistance, in order to keep the library open all day and every day without overworking the staff, should not be questioned. It may be argued that if one town of a certain size can keep its public libraries open all day and every day (save Sundays and holidays, of course), every similar town and all larger ones can easily do likewise. But, as may be seen by reference to Greenwood’s _British Library Year Book_, 1900-1901, this is not invariably the case. A careful and well-constructed time-sheet will often get over difficulties which may seem to arise from under-staffing or other conditions. There have been, and possibly still may be, libraries in which, largely because of badly constructed time-sheets, the assistants are given only one evening off weekly, and work from eight to nine hours daily, although the library is closed for a half-day every week, and thus both assistants and public are incommoded.