Answer these questions:

• Are you running journals? (This means filling a shelf to 100 % capacity if there is nothing but volumes of one specific journal title. Some journals have several sections' of volumes, and there is no need to save growth space at the end of each of these shelves: do be sure to leave space for journals that are not currently on the shelves.) If you are running journals, you fill the shelves to the max until the journal title is done, then leave X years of growth space. Staff need to note the width of a year's growth for each title, then multiply that by X. The # inches will vary by each title.
• If your collection has journals only (no monographs) see some comments from another library.
• Do you have the luxury of leaving the top and/or bottom shelves empty on each section? Some libraries choose to leave a bunch of their growth space as empty top and/or bottom shelves. Makes it easier for the patrons, if you have the traditional 90" shelving units.
• Do you need to leave an empty shelf at the end of every 4th or 5th range for re-shelving area?
• Do you want to leave more growth space per shelf in fast growing areas of your collection, and less in the slower-growing areas?
• How many books per section will you allow to be "tipped"? (Tipping a book means laying it on its spine: if it were shelved in the upright position, you'd lose a whole shelf in that section. Very tight libraries often have many books per section tipped: a library with more space might want to tip no more than one or two per section).

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