I think you might have answered your own question there
"shelf life" is how long an item can sit unused and still be expected to work.
Cream has a shelf life of a week or two.
Bread a few days.
Camera film months to years.
Medicine days to years.
Etc Etc...
"hard copy" media could be printer toner/ink cartriges or even thermal paper.
"storage" media could be magnetic tape, disks, flash RAM cards.
Chris
http://www.hearseesay.com