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.
The weight of opinion seems to be in favor of small boards; and in small towns, where the duties are light, three trustees will usually work more harmoniously and effectively than a larger number. But in large towns and cities a more numerous board has two advantages--there is more chance of securing among its members one or two men who are exceptionally active, intelligent, judicious, and interested in library science; and the board may be more thoroughly representative of different sections of the town and different elements in the population.
The usual and undoubtedly the best composition of a board of library trustees is to divide it into groups, one group going out of office each year. This provision secures stability by preventing sudden changes of the whole board by intrigue or popular caprice, and is intended to allow opportunity for gradual change whenever it is needed.
But does this provision alone insure sufficient change to prevent stagnation? The position of trustee of a library is so pleasant and honorable, that the incumbent may wish to retain it indefinitely. The men selected as trustees may be personally so worthy and popular that their townsmen are reluctant to retire them compulsorily, even when the feeling is prevalent that others might serve more acceptably. To effect a change under such circumstances requires an effort approaching revolution, with danger of that discord and bad feeling which are so unfortunate in library management.