OF THE BOARD OF PUBLIC EDUCATION. 87 Incidental and miscellaneous expenses, print- ing, etc., for all Elementary Schools, in¬ cluding Cooking Classes, for the /Com¬ mittee on Elementary Schools .. 9,500.00 Amount in reserve .. 8,500.00 Total../..$69,500.00 Respectfully submitted, Murrell Dobbins, Franklin Smedley, Edwin Wolf, Franklin S. Edmonds. APPENDIX No. 38. Philadelphia, March 13, 1906. To the Board of Public Education of the First School District of Pennsylvania. The Committee on Superintendence respectfully reports That upon the recommendation of this Committee a leave of absence was granted on February 13, 1906, to the Superintendent of Schools. Doctor Brooks is now in Bermuda and has requested a further leave of absence. For the reasons stated in the Committee’s former report (Appendix, page 50), it is recommended that the accompanying resolution be adopted. Resolved , That the leave of absence granted the Superintendent of Public Schools, Doctor Edward Brooks, be extended to April 15, 1906, without loss of salary. Respectfully submitted, Wm. H. Shoemaker, William F. Harrity, M. Rosenbaum, Franklin Smedley, Avery D. Harrington. \ appendix to the journal APPENDIX No. 39. Philadelphia, March 13, 1906. To the Board of Public Education of the Eirst School District of Pennsylvania. The Committee on Superintendence respectfully reports:— That the Pedagogical Library of the Board of Public Education contains 7,962 volumes. These vol¬ umes have been collected during the past twenty years: by means of appropriations granted the Board of Pub¬ lic Education by City Councils and represent the stand¬ ard works in each subject of knowledge. In 1887, when the library was yet in its inception, the Superin¬ tendent of Schools, Dr. McAllister, prepared and pub¬ lished a catalog of the library, and in 1889 published a supplement to it. Since 1889 the library has more than quadrupled in size and value, and library science has universally adopted improved schemes of classification and plans of catalog. The publication of a new catalog is, there¬ fore, desirable, as the catalog of 1887, with its supple¬ ment is inadequate to the present demands made upon the library, and is also unrepresentative of its litera- ture at the present time. A new catalog of the Pedagogical Library ar¬ ranged on the dictionary plan has been prepared by the Librarian, Miss Lillian I. Rhoads, so that each book is indexed under the author, title and subject or subjects, and the entries are arranged in one alphabet, as are the words in a dictionary. The decimal classi¬ fication was chosen because its use was more general than any other and because its adoption would con- OF THE BOARD OF PUBLIC EDUCATION. 89 venience the largest number of teachers. This plan of classification and cataloging has been adopted by the American Library Association and is universally used by the principal libraries throughout the country, including the Free Library- of Philadelphia and its branch libraries. Each book is indexed under the au¬ thor, with the author’s full name, exact title, number of pages, size of book, name of publisher and date of publication. References to editor, translator, com¬ piler, etc., are made. Each volume is further indexed under its most specific subject or subjects with refer¬ ences and cross references to kindred subjects and analyzation is made of the more important essays, bibliographies, biographies, addresses, etc., thus pre¬ senting to the student valuable information which would otherwise be hidden. In the subject of Education and its kindred sub¬ subjects, and in philosophy and psychology, the library is especially rich; while the literature of every class of knowledge is well represented, there are few sub¬ jects in which the library is deficient, and these sub¬ jects are of minor importance. Your Committee is of the opinion that the publi¬ cation of this catalog would present to the teachers of Philadelphia, and to all interested in education, a rep¬ resentative bibliography of pedagogical literature, of use to every teacher from the kindergarten to the high school and in every branch of administrative educa¬ tional work; to supplement the work of the class-room and to aid the teacher in special study by securing for him desired information in the shortest possible time. An estimate of the cost of publishing the catalog furnished by the Department of Superintendence is 3 2 061917487 90 APPENDIX TO THE JOURNAL $1,500. This would present a volume of 300 pages, ar¬ ranged in double columns, printed in brevier type, bound in ctiff -' papor cover, with an edition of 5,000 copies.. As there are more than 4,000 teachers in Phil¬ adelphia, the first edition should be not less than 5,000 copies.. This would mean that the Board' of Public Education could place a manual of pedagogical litera¬ ture in the hands of every public school teacher in the city at a cost of thirty cents per teacher. The compilation of this catalog has required years of careful labor. Its preparation was incited by a general demand, not only in this city, but also from various parts of the country, for a new edition of Dr. McAllister’s catalog and for a hand book of represen¬ tative pedagogical literature. Miss Rhoades has worked patiently and conscientiously in the prepara¬ tion of this work, and the Committee believes that the catalog is a valuable manual for the use of teachers and students of pedagogy, and would aid materially in any movement for the general improvement and higher culture of teachers. The Committee, therefore, recommends the adop¬ tion of the accompanying resolution:— Resolved, That the Committee on Superintendence he authorized and directed to have printed, for dis¬ tribution among the teachers of this School District, an edition of five thousand copies of the analytical catalog of the Pedagogical library of the Board of Public Education. Respectfully submitted, Wm. H. Shoemaker, William F. Harrity, M. Rosenbaum, Franklin Smedley, Avery D. Harrington.