> 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