Elena,

I think the following article provides very useful guidelines and experience
on estimating shelf space capacities.

"A Method for Measuring Collection Expansion Rates and Shelf Space
Capacities" by Gregg Sapp and George Suttle in The Journal of Academic
Librarianship, July 1994, pp.156-161.

Ming-kan Wong
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
<LBMKWONG@USTHK.UST.HK>