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An exact, discrete formulation of Bradford's law describing the distribution of articles in journals is derived by showing that Bradford's law is a special case of the Zipf‐Mandelbrot ‘rank frequency’ law. A relatively simple method is presented for fitting the model to empirical data and estimating the number of journals and articles in a subject collection. This method is demonstrated with an example application.

The distribution of references in a collection of pertinent source documents can be described and predicted by the relation where the parameter ß is related to the subject field and the completeness of the collection. The model is used to predict the reference yield of abstracting journals in a search for thermophysical property data. It is used also to explain differences among various literature studies of the past in terms of differences in subject and comprehensiveness of search. The model is derived from S. C. Bradford's ‘law of scattering’ and is called the Bradford Distribution.

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A LIBRARY that moves towards becoming an information centre mirrors those attempts made in the political sphere to construct a community out of a fragmented reality, rife with escapism. Mircea Eliade, in discussing the myth of the élite, calls the fragmentation which modern, man experiences part of a complex process, the cyclic mythological behaviour characteristic of archaic and traditional societies where Chaos is followed by a new creation.