The question is sometimes asked whether a practitioner who has a card in the directory of The Christian Science Journal may also be a librarian of a Christian Science Reading Room. This question is asked, no doubt, because of the By-Law (Art. XXIII, Sect. 11) of the Church Manual by Mary Baker Eddy, which reads, "Teachers and practitioners of Christian Science shall not have their offices or rooms in the branch churches, in the reading-rooms, nor in rooms connected therewith."
The Mother Church maintains three Reading Rooms in Boston, as is well known: one in the downtown district, where there are many business offices, where newspapers are published and financial transactions carried on; another near the shopping district; and a third in the vicinity of The Mother Church edifice and the Publishing House. Almost without exception the librarians of these Reading Rooms, and some of the assistant and substitute librarians, are advertised practitioners; but they are careful to keep their work as such separate from their work as librarians.
Similarly, it is held permissible for a practitioner in a branch church field to serve as librarian in the Reading Room. Service as a librarian does not mean that the practitioner has an office in the Reading Room or one connected with it. While on duty as librarian he is not on duty as a practitioner. Of course, in an emergency he might receive a telephone call from a patient, or, in a moment when demands are not made upon him as librarian might give a thought to a case in his care. But as a rule those who have other duties than the practice do not take cases of great urgency which might call for their services at a moment's notice, and at an unpropitious time.
