Library and Information Science

Characteristics of 20 books which describe the popularized knowledge about vitamin were investigated.

Methods were; 1. to select popular books on vitamin, 2. to survey following items; (1) author, publisher and date of publication, (2) proportions of the technical terms, (3) average length of the sentence, (4) data elements contained in the books.

Results were; 1. these 20 books reflect the process of popularization in four distinctly different stages, they are as follows; (1) translation of foreign distinguished books, (2) publication of domestic books by some particular authors, (3) increase of the number of the publications of domestic books by many authors, (4) rapid decrease of number of the publications, 2. proportions of the technical terms to the all terms in these 20 books were all about 10% by means of letter-by-letter, 3. average length of the sentences in these 20 books were all about 50 letters, 4. data elements contained in the many of these 20 books were; (1) interesting knowledges for the general public, and/or (2) established and fundamental knowledges of vitamin.