The library at the university I attended as an undergraduate threw out (3 or 4?) volumes of TAOCP but kept &quot;the magna guide to SQL&quot; or some crap like this.<p>Their justification was that TAOCP had never been checked out. Which is funny because the year prior when I tried to check out a volume, they told me it was a reference book and could not be checked out.<p>I&#x27;m still completely confused about how that decisions was actually made, and why the books weren&#x27;t given away or sold.