ABSTRACT
Robert F.Munn, former acting provost and dean of the Graduate School of West Virginia University, wrote an article entitled “The Bottomless Pit, or the Academic Library as Viewed from the Administration Building,” which became infamous in library circles. Among several cogent points, Munn alerted librarians that:
Many academic administrators view the library as a bottomless pit. They have observed that increased appropriations one year invariably result in still larger requests the next. More important, there do not appear to be even any theoretical limits to the library’s needs. Certainly the library profession has been unable to define them. This the Administration finds most disquieting. (Munn, 1989, p. 636).
