Charles Ammi Cutter (1837-1903), the author of what is in Mr. Ranz’s opinion the finest library catalogue ever made. Cutter’s masterpiece is the five-volume catalogue of the Boston Atheneum, published between 1874 and 1882. “I’m not sure he wasn’t the greatest cataloguer that lived,” Mr. Ranz told me. The work is three thousand four hundred and two pages long, and is elaborately and commonsensically cross-referenced; it cost the Athenaeum almost a hundred thousand dollars to produce. It is still of interest and utility to historians—as is the card catalogue for the Athenaeum, which Cutter also developed.

Together, over the years, they achieved what one of their early masters, Charles Ammi Cutter, called a “syndetic” structure—that is, a system of referential links—of remarkable coherency and resolution.

Most of my notes have a title that roughly conform to Dewey, often with an ersatz Cutter number for the author (that's a library science thing).

Together, over the years, they achieved what one of their earlymasters, Charles Ammi Cutter, called a “syndetic” structure—that is,a system of referential links—of remarkable coherency andresolution.

There was a high number of librarians among the Americans, such asCharles Ammi Cutter of Harvard and the Boston Athenæum (who producedAmerica’s first public library card catalogue).