EDITORIAL PREFACE

Of the author of this volume it was said by President Hill at the 1906 A. L. A. Conference, “he has given the subject of Library Architecture more thought and attention, probably, than any other member.”

Mr. Soule is well known to older librarians. To introduce him to a younger generation and to architects, we would say that although he is a publisher and bookseller, and not professionally a librarian, he has had an effective training in library science. He joined the American Library Association in 1879, became at once a working member, has attended twenty Conferences, and has been elected to office, as follows:

In 1890, when a prominent trustee had been quoted as saying, “it was no use consulting librarians about building, for no two of them agree on any one point,” he wrote, and the 1890 Conference unanimously adopted, “Points of Agreement among Librarians on Library Architecture.”

In 1892 he published in the Boston press an exhaustive series of nine letters, taking the side of the librarians of the country against what they thought to be radical errors in the management and building of the Boston Public Library.

In 1901 he wrote the article “Library,” for Sturgis’s Dictionary of Architecture.

In 1902 he wrote the A. L. A. tract on “Library Rooms and Buildings.”

For forty active years in business as a bookseller, he has handled and issued books.

For over thirty years of membership in the A. L. A. he has been intimate with leading librarians.

In the Boston controversy, he felt obliged to investigate thoroughly every point he criticized on behalf of the librarians.

When elected as a trustee in Brookline he found a very conservative board at the time the new developments of library progress were slowly gaining ground, and had to go to the bottom of every new method before the board could be persuaded to try it.

During the last five years Mr. Soule has frequently been called on as an expert, and has been through all the detail of building problems of several different grades.

All this educated him in such a school of experience that Mr. Dewey thus spoke of him at one of the A. L. A. Conferences: “When people ask who are the most active and efficient librarians in America we are almost sure to name two or three men who are not librarians at all; for instance, R. R. Bowker and C. C. Soule.”

After such experience, we can commend what the author has to say, to respectful attention.

Illustrations have been suggested, but have not been included in this volume lest they should increase the bulk and price too much. If they are asked for, we will issue a separate volume of illustrative plates.

FREDERICK W. FAXON,
Editor Useful Reference Series.