INFORMATION STORAGE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE CONTENTS OF THE WORLD'S LIBRARIES

Area of Science:

• Information Science
• Library Science
• Digital Humanities

Background:

• Libraries worldwide store a vast quantity of unique items, representing human knowledge.
• Quantifying this stored information is crucial for understanding information growth and digital preservation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To estimate the total number of distinct items held in the world's libraries.
• To calculate the total information storage capacity of these library collections.
• To determine the rate at which this information capacity is increasing.

Main Methods:

• Utilized three distinct calculation methods to estimate the number of unique library items.
• Applied standard metrics for words per volume, letters per word, and bits per letter to assess information capacity.
• Monitored the rate of information increase over time.

Main Results:

• Estimated the number of unique items in global libraries to be between 75 million and 770 million.
• Calculated the total information storage capacity to range from 4.6 x 10^14 to 4.6 x 10^15 bits.
• Found that the information storage capacity is increasing at approximately 2 x 10^6 bits per second.

Conclusions:

• Libraries collectively hold an immense and growing volume of information.
• The findings provide a quantitative baseline for understanding the scale of recorded knowledge.
• Highlights the accelerating growth of information necessitates ongoing research into storage and accessibility.