=97. Staff and Public.=--It is most important that good relations should exist between readers and the whole of the staff. It is a well-known fact that one or two overbearing assistants can render a public library more unpopular than almost anything else. Assistants should school themselves to endure with philosophy the impertinence of the small number of the general public who contrive to make themselves objectionable in every town, and not visit on the heads of the inoffensive majority the sins of the inconsiderate few. The staff of every public library should learn as a first lesson that they are the servants and not the masters of the people, and that mutual self-respect can be maintained without undue familiarity on the one side or aloofness on the other. The supercilious “official” attitude, with which public servants are so frequently credited, is to be completely repressed and kept under, and the public should be taught to appreciate their own libraries, and to understand that the doors of a municipal library are always open to receive and welcome every class of citizen. At the same time, preference should not be shown for any particular frequenter or group of frequenters, and gossiping must be suppressed. =98. Staff Accommodation.=--In libraries of every size private rooms of suitable dimensions should be provided for the librarian and the assistants; with work- and store-rooms for the staff and caretaker. The librarian’s room in small libraries may be made large enough to serve as a committee room, and in all cases should have separate lavatory accommodation. A large safe or strong room is often attached to the librarian’s room, or in a secure part of the basement, in which to store valuable documents and books. It should be shelved to contain such documents as registers, minutes and other local records in a convenient manner, and should be kept well ventilated and dry for the safe preservation of its contents. Strong rooms vary in size from 4 feet × 6 feet × 8 feet, to large apartments 20 feet × 20 feet and upwards. The usual furnishings of a librarian’s room comprise a desk, table, bookshelves, chairs, hat and umbrella stand, and other office furniture. Staff mess-rooms should be fitted with tables, chairs, cupboards, with a locker for each assistant, cooking apparatus and other appliances. Work-rooms for staff use must be fitted to suit the class of work carried on, whether cataloguing or preparing books, binding or filing. Store-rooms for general purposes and for the use of the caretaker should also be provided, fitted with all necessary cupboards and shelving. Separate staff rooms and lavatory accommodation should be provided in libraries with staffs composed partly of men, partly of women. BIBLIOGRAPHY Cowell, Peter. Public Library Staffs, 1893, L.A. Series, 3.