Charles Henry Gould

{{Short description|Canadian librarian}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2019}}

{{Infobox officeholder

| name = Charles Henry Gould

| image = Mr. Charles H. Gould in Montreal, Canada.tif

| caption = Gould in 1900

| office = President of the American Library Association

| term_start = 1908

| term_end = 1909

| predecessor = Arthur Elmore Bostwick

| successor = Nathaniel Dana Carlile Hodges

| birth_date = {{birth date|1855|12|06}}

| death_date = {{d-da|July 30, 1919|December 6, 1855}}

| nationality = Canadian

| alma_mater = McGill University

| occupation = {{hlist|Librarian|musician}}

}}

Charles Henry Gould (December 6, 1855 – July 30, 1919) was a Canadian librarian and musician.

Gould attended the High School of Montreal and McGill University, receiving his bachelor's degree in 1877. He started graduate work in physics but never took a further degree. From 1880 to 1887 he was the organist of the American Presbyterian Church in Montreal. In 1892, Gould was appointed as the first university librarian at McGill University. Gould began his service as librarian by traveling through Europe and the United States to learn library administration.{{cite book|last1=Atherton|first1=William Henry|title=Montreal from 1535 to 1914. Volume 3|date=1914|publisher=Clarke Publishing|page=272|hdl=2027/mdp.39015039575025?urlappend=%3Bseq=278|url=http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015039575025?urlappend=%3Bseq=278|access-date=February 13, 2016}}

Gould contributed greatly to Canadian culture, scholarship, and librarianship. He hosted the American Library Association's annual meeting in Montreal in 1900 and during that meeting participated in founding the first Canadian library association which became the Ontario Library Association. Gould started the first bibliographical control system for Canadian science. In 1904 Gould started a summer school that became the McGill Library School.{{cite book|last1=McNally|first1=Peter F.|title=Scholar Librarians: Gould, Lomer and Pennington|pages=96–97|url=http://fontanus.mcgill.ca/article/viewFile/10/9|access-date=February 13, 2016}} Gould is credited with the creation of the modern system of interlibrary loan. In 1916 he chaired the committee of the ALA that produced the first policies for interlibrary loan among libraries.C. H. Gould, “[Report of the ALA] Committee on Co-ordination [regarding the Code of Practice for Interlibrary Loans],” Library Journal 42 (1917): 634{{cite book|last1=McNally|first1=Peter F.|title=International Dictionary of Library Histories|date=2001|publisher=Routledge|isbn=1579582443|pages=436–438}}

Gould served as the first Canadian president of the American Library Association from 1908 to 1909.{{cite web|title=ALA's Past Presidents|url=http://www.ala.org/aboutala/history/past|publisher=American Library Association|access-date=February 10, 2016}} During his tenure, he oversaw the relocation of the ALA headquarters from Boston to Chicago and the adoption of a new constitution for the Association.

Gould was president of the Bibliographical Society of America from 1912 to 1913.