Dear All, Here's my twopennyworth. Another factor is the nature of the operating system. To save complications, I propose to make my point by reference to the usual "HD" MS-DOS floppydisk. Its file structure allows the data to be stored in multiples of 256 bits, and the ASCII character-set is designed to work in this way, so one character (usually) occupies one byte. The table-of-contents will in fact allow smaller files - even one bit - but the remaining 255 bits cannot be used, unless the data is overwritten by an .EXE (executable) program. A floppydisk's table-of-contents can show everything to 1-bit resolution. Another point is that there may be a "file header". The original .WAV file had a file-header 32 bytes long, which stored the file size so that playback software would stop playing the audio before it over-ran and blew up loudspeakers with raw digital data from the next file. The point I'm making is that in practice each institution and each application may require a different solution. There can be no "right way" to do it. Peter -----Original Message----- From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Brandon Burke Sent: 08 June 2005 22:24 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [ARSCLIST] file size metadata All, I am tweaking some fields in our audio collections database and was wondering how the rest of you record file sizes. Do you allow for different units such as MB and GB in your databases...or are you converting everything into bytes? I'm assuming most standards prefer you to hang your hat on a universal unit like byte. But this causes some problems in that (a) every file size has to be converted into bytes and (b) most users, archivists included, don't see the world in terms of bytes. When I'm trying to figure out how many files are going to fit on X hard drive or Y CD-R I'm looking at MGs and GBs only. How are you recording this data...? thanks as always, Brandon Burke _______________________________________ Brandon Burke Archival Specialist Hoover Institution Archives Stanford University Stanford, CA 94305-6010 voice: 650.724.9711 fax: 650.725.3445 email: [log in to unmask] ************************************************************************** Experience the British Library online at www.bl.uk Help the British Library conserve the world's knowledge. Adopt a Book. www.bl.uk/adoptabook ************************************************************************** The information contained in this e-mail is confidential and may be legally privileged. It is intended for the addressee(s) only. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete this e-mail and notify the [log in to unmask] : The contents of this e-mail must not be disclosed or copied without the sender's consent. The statements and opinions expressed in this message are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the British Library. The British Library does not take any responsibility for the views of the author. **************************************************************************