A model for measuring the congestion in library shelves

Abstract

A model for measuring the congestion in library shelves after j years (j is an element of N) is obtained by taking j-fold convolutions of the distributions that describe the yearly growth of literature (e.g. periodicals, books on a certain topic....) From this one can estimate the expected number of critical points in the shelf, after j years. One can also calculate the probability that there will be m (m is an element of N) critical points after j years. The paper closes by examining two concrete cases.