| This study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of two academic libraries in Saudi Arabia: the University of Petroleum and Minerals, and King Saud University. The main objectives of the study were to determine the rate of book availability as a measure of effectiveness of library services, and to identify, in quantitative terms, the operational factors that affect the availability of materials. The study also suggests some steps for the improvement of book availability in the two libraries.; For the collection of data in this study, a survey was carried out in the form of a brief questionnaire at each library. In this survey, (a) a sample of specific title searches was used, (b) the number of fulfilled requests and the number of unfulfilled requests were recorded, and (c) the status and/or location of the unfulfilled request was determined.; The data were analyzed using the branching technique developed by Paul Kantor to measure the various factors affecting availability of books in the library. The study included six distinct factors that affect availability, namely, user bibliographic skills, collection development policy, user catalog skills, circulation policy, circulation management functions, and user search skills.; The results of the data analysis showed that the overall rates of book availability in the University of Petroleum and Minerals and the King Saud University libraries were almost the same. That is, each library was able to fulfill approximately over 50 percent of user requests for books. However, the causes of unavailability differed significantly in the two libraries: (a) of the factors that were studied at the University of Petroleum and Minerals library, circulation policy performance followed by circulation management functions performance were found to be the lowest and were the most common causes of unavailability, and (b) of all the factors that were examined in the King Saud University survey, collection development policy and user search skills performance were found to be the lowest and were mainly responsible for the unavailability of library materials. |
