In introducing this topic, Mr. C.C. Soule, who spoke as a
trustee of the Brookline Public Library, said that he had
found little or nothing about it in existing library
literature, and that his paper had been shown to a
considerable number of both trustees and librarians and
modified in accordance with their views. His analysis of the
subject is somewhat closer than President Learned's.
Charles Carroll Soule was born in Boston June 25, 1842 and
graduated at Harvard in 1862. After serving in the Civil
War, which he left as a captain of Massachusetts volunteers
he became a publisher and after 1889 was president of the
Boston Book Co. He was an active member of the American
Library Association. He died at his home in Brookline, Jan.
7, 1913
This paper considers the constitution of elective boards of trustees of
free public libraries, intrusted with the appointment of librarians and
full control of their libraries.
The subject can be naturally treated under the following heads: Size of
the board; term of office; qualifications for the position; duties;
individual and collective; organization; and relations with the
librarian.