Information Storage Requirements for the Contents of the World's Libraries

13 September 1963

journal article
research article
Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science

Vol. 141 (3585) , 1067-1068
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.141.3585.1067

Abstract

Three calculations of the number of different things stored in the world's libraries yield estimates from 7.5 x 10⁷ to 7.7 x 10⁸. At 10⁵ words per volume, five letters per word, and 12 bits per letter, the information capacity used for storage is between 4.6 x 10¹⁴ and 4.6 x 10¹⁵ bits, and is increasing at about 2 x 10⁶ bits per second.

Keywords

LIBRARY SURVEYS

This publication has 1 reference indexed in Scilit:

The world's technical journal literature: An estimate of volume, origin, language, field, indexing, and abstracting
American Documentation, 1962