ACROSS the country few public libraries are open on Sundays, but, in adventurously bringing the departure to East Lancashire, Blackburn with Darwen Council raises two questions.

They are whether there is an true demand for Sunday opening and whether staff are being paid fairly for having to work that day.

The first, of course, will be answered by immutable market forces. And though ours is an age in which leisure and recreation facilities abound, there are still a lot of people for whom Sunday seems a difficult day on which to find amusement. Perhaps for many of them the library will be a refreshing diversion. Certainly, its increased availability is likely to be welcomed by mature students and working people who found the previous opening hours restricted their study and research.

No doubt, town hall chiefs and other local authorities will measure the response with interest.

But, as for the squabble over whether library staff have been duped into accepting Sunday working at unfavourable rates of pay, the situation is not easy to assess.

Is it a case of the staff being nave in becoming tied to an official agreement which means most are now paid less for working on Sundays than the time-and-a-half they used to get for Saturdays, or one of the council being artful in getting the employees tied to such a deal in the first place -- when, at the time, Sunday working was not envisaged?

Either way, it is a recipe for disgruntlement. Certainly, it would buy a lot of goodwill and benefit both sides as well as users of the library if the council could find room for even a slight improvement in the rewards for Sunday working -- something which, after all, entails widespread premium rates elsewhere.

And would it not be far better for this test of the new facility to proceed without grumbles in the background?