Who is/was the professional archivist and where is/was the collection last
seen?
Do you have any ideas?

Ed


On Sun, Sep 29, 2024 at 9:12 AM Douglas McIlroy <
douglas.mcilroy@dartmouth.edu> wrote:

> > I wonder what happened to the amazing library at Murray Hill.
>
> Last I knew, the Bell Labs archives were intact under supervision of a
> professional archivist. Formally speaking, the archives and the library
> were distinct entities. The library, which was open to self service 24
> hours a day, declined rapidly after the bean counters decreed that it
> should henceforth support itself on rental fees. Departments immediately
> turned to buying books rather than borrowing them. It's very likely that
> this was bad for the Labs' bottom line, but the cost (both monetary and
> intellectual) was not visible as a budgetary line item.
>
> The 24-hour library contributed to one of Ken's programming feats. Spurred
> by a lunchtime remark that it would be nice to have a unit-conversion
> program, Ken announced units(1) the next morning. Right from the start, the
> program knew more than 200 units, thanks to a book Ken grabbed from the
> library in the middle of the night.
>
> Doug
>


-- 
Advice is judged by results, not by intentions.
  Cicero