diff --git a/container.go b/container.go
index e1674320..304085fa 100644
--- a/container.go
+++ b/container.go
@@ -7,10 +7,11 @@ package restful
 import (
 	"bytes"
 	"fmt"
-	"log"
 	"net/http"
 	"runtime"
 	"strings"
+
+	"github.com/emicklei/go-restful/log"
 )
 
 // Container holds a collection of WebServices and a http.ServeMux to dispatch http requests.
diff --git a/doc.go b/doc.go
index 769676f5..aff2f508 100644
--- a/doc.go
+++ b/doc.go
@@ -165,10 +165,17 @@ If you expect to read large amounts of payload data, and you do not use this fea
 Trouble shooting
 
 This package has the means to produce detail logging of the complete Http request matching process and filter invocation.
-Enabling this feature requires you to set an implementation of restful.Logger (e.g. log.Logger) instance such as:
+Enabling this feature requires you to set an implementation of restful.StdLogger (e.g. log.Logger) instance such as:
 
 	restful.TraceLogger(log.New(os.Stdout, "[restful] ", log.LstdFlags|log.Lshortfile))
 
+Logging
+
+The restful.SetLogger() method allows you to override the logger used by the package. By default restful
+uses the standard library `log` package and logs to stdout. Different logging packages are supported as
+long as they conform to `StdLogger` interface defined in the `log` sub-package, writing an adapter for your
+preferred package is simple.
+
 Resources
 
 [project]: https://github.com/emicklei/go-restful
diff --git a/log/log.go b/log/log.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..67649a36
--- /dev/null
+++ b/log/log.go
@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+package log
+
+import (
+	stdlog "log"
+	"os"
+)
+
+// Logger corresponds to a subset of the interface satisfied by stdlib log.Logger
+type StdLogger interface {
+	Fatal(v ...interface{})
+	Fatalf(format string, v ...interface{})
+	Fatalln(v ...interface{})
+	// Flags() int
+	// Output(calldepth int, s string) error
+	// Panic(v ...interface{})
+	// Panicf(format string, v ...interface{})
+	// Panicln(v ...interface{})
+	// Prefix() string
+	Print(v ...interface{})
+	Printf(format string, v ...interface{})
+	Println(v ...interface{})
+	// SetFlags(flag int)
+	// SetPrefix(prefix string)
+}
+
+var Logger StdLogger
+
+func init() {
+	// default Logger
+	SetLogger(stdlog.New(os.Stdout, "[restful] ", stdlog.LstdFlags|stdlog.Lshortfile))
+}
+
+func SetLogger(customLogger StdLogger) {
+	Logger = customLogger
+}
+
+func Fatal(v ...interface{}) {
+	Logger.Fatal(v...)
+}
+
+func Fatalf(format string, v ...interface{}) {
+	Logger.Fatalf(format, v...)
+}
+
+func Fatalln(v ...interface{}) {
+	Logger.Fatalln(v...)
+}
+
+func Print(v ...interface{}) {
+	Logger.Print(v...)
+}
+
+func Printf(format string, v ...interface{}) {
+	Logger.Printf(format, v...)
+}
+
+func Println(v ...interface{}) {
+	Logger.Println(v...)
+}
diff --git a/logger.go b/logger.go
index abcc56d6..3f1c4db8 100644
--- a/logger.go
+++ b/logger.go
@@ -3,30 +3,30 @@ package restful
 // Copyright 2014 Ernest Micklei. All rights reserved.
 // Use of this source code is governed by a license
 // that can be found in the LICENSE file.
+import (
+	"github.com/emicklei/go-restful/log"
+)
 
 var trace bool = false
-var traceLogger Logger
+var traceLogger log.StdLogger
 
-// Logger corresponds to a subset of the interface satisfied by stdlib log.Logger
-type Logger interface {
-	Fatal(v ...interface{})
-	Fatalf(format string, v ...interface{})
-	Fatalln(v ...interface{})
-	// Flags() int
-	// Output(calldepth int, s string) error
-	// Panic(v ...interface{})
-	// Panicf(format string, v ...interface{})
-	// Panicln(v ...interface{})
-	// Prefix() string
-	Print(v ...interface{})
-	Printf(format string, v ...interface{})
-	Println(v ...interface{})
-	// SetFlags(flag int)
-	// SetPrefix(prefix string)
+func init() {
+	traceLogger = log.Logger // use the package logger by default
 }
 
 // TraceLogger enables detailed logging of Http request matching and filter invocation. Default no logger is set.
-func TraceLogger(logger Logger) {
+// You may call EnableTracing() directly to enable trace logging to the package-wide logger.
+func TraceLogger(logger log.StdLogger) {
 	traceLogger = logger
-	trace = logger != nil
+	EnableTracing(logger != nil)
+}
+
+// expose the setter for the global logger on the top-level package
+func SetLogger(customLogger log.StdLogger) {
+	log.SetLogger(customLogger)
+}
+
+// EnableTracing can be used to Trace logging on and off.
+func EnableTracing(enabled bool) {
+	trace = enabled
 }
diff --git a/route_builder.go b/route_builder.go
index e72b28f1..8bed65ee 100644
--- a/route_builder.go
+++ b/route_builder.go
@@ -5,10 +5,11 @@ package restful
 // that can be found in the LICENSE file.
 
 import (
-	"log"
 	"reflect"
 	"runtime"
 	"strings"
+
+	"github.com/emicklei/go-restful/log"
 )
 
 // RouteBuilder is a helper to construct Routes.
diff --git a/swagger/swagger_webservice.go b/swagger/swagger_webservice.go
index 8935061a..8de7e4a7 100644
--- a/swagger/swagger_webservice.go
+++ b/swagger/swagger_webservice.go
@@ -5,11 +5,12 @@ import (
 
 	"github.com/emicklei/go-restful"
 	// "github.com/emicklei/hopwatch"
-	"log"
 	"net/http"
 	"reflect"
 	"sort"
 	"strings"
+
+	"github.com/emicklei/go-restful/log"
 )
 
 type SwaggerService struct {
@@ -24,7 +25,10 @@ func newSwaggerService(config Config) *SwaggerService {
 }
 
 // LogInfo is the function that is called when this package needs to log. It defaults to log.Printf
-var LogInfo = log.Printf
+var LogInfo = func(format string, v ...interface{}) {
+	// use the restful package-wide logger
+	log.Printf(format, v...)
+}
 
 // InstallSwaggerService add the WebService that provides the API documentation of all services
 // conform the Swagger documentation specifcation. (https://github.com/wordnik/swagger-core/wiki).
diff --git a/web_service.go b/web_service.go
index 52ba06f5..884d50dc 100644
--- a/web_service.go
+++ b/web_service.go
@@ -1,11 +1,13 @@
 package restful
 
+import (
+	"github.com/emicklei/go-restful/log"
+)
+
 // Copyright 2013 Ernest Micklei. All rights reserved.
 // Use of this source code is governed by a license
 // that can be found in the LICENSE file.
 
-import "log"
-
 // WebService holds a collection of Route values that bind a Http Method + URL Path to a function.
 type WebService struct {
 	rootPath       string