An unsteady-state moisture diffusion through cellulosic fibers in paper was characterized from the moisture sorption experiment and the mathematical modeling. The sorption experiment was conducted by exposing thin dry paper specimens to a constant temperature-humidity environment. Oven dried blotting papers and filter papers were used as test samples and the gains of their weights were constantly monitored and recorded as a function of sorption time. For a mathematical approach, the moisture transport was assumed to be an one-dimensional diffusion in thickness direction through the geometrically symmetric structure of paper. The model was asymptotically simplified with a short-term approximation. It gave us a new insight into the moisture uptake phenomena as a function of square root of sorption time. The fiber-phase moisture diffusivities(FPMD) of paper samples were then determined by correlating the experimental data with the unsteady-state diffusion model obtained. Their values were found to be on the order of magnitude of $10^{-6}-10^{-7}cm^2$/min., which were equivalent to the hypothetical effective diffusion coefficients at the limit of zero porosity. The moisture sorption curve predicted from the model fairly agreed with that obtained from the experiment at some limited initial stages of the moisture uptake process. The FPMD value of paper significantly varied depending upon the current moisture content of paper. The mean FPMD was about 0.7-0.8 times as large as the short-term approximated FPMD.