Alao, Folorunso, and Saka, Part 5
Methodology -continued
Book Availability Rate
Of the 2,221 titles searched, 1,345 were found while 876 were not found, giving an overall book availability rate of 60.5 percent for the library. Unfortunately, no currently published Nigerian or other data was available for comparison. The rate is, however, close to the 63 percent reported by Wulff (1978) in the University of Minnesota Bio-Medical Library study, though that study was conducted some 30 years ago.
In Table 3 and Figure 1 are data from which the four performance levels for the library (Table 4) were computed:
As observed by Wulff (1978), such figures as the foregoing can be interpreted from the point of view of the library concerned as well as its users. From the point of view of the University of Ilorin College of Health Sciences Library it can be said that there is no cause for concern with a selection and acquisition programme that can produce 87 percent of the books needed by its users as shown in Table 4.
Conversely, the results of analysis of the search failures by the performance measures vis-á-vis the total numbers of books searched in each case(Figure 1) were quite striking. They suggest that:
- Thirteen percent (288 ÷ 2221 × 100) of the books needed by such users were not owned by the library;
- Ten percent (224 ÷ 2221 × 100) of the books needed had been checked out;
- Ten percent (218 ÷ 2221 × 100) of the books needed were in the library but not on the shelves where they were expected to be found; and,
- Seven percent (146 ÷ 2221 × 100) of the books needed were in the right places on the shelves but were not found due to the readers' mistakes.
The overall implication of the above results is that users left the library without two of every five books needed (876 ÷ 2221 × 100 ? 40 percent = 2/5) which is not good enough for a developing country like Nigeria where most university library users, particularly undergraduates, depend on their institutions' libraries for most of their book needs.
Performance Levels
In Table 3 and Figure 1 are data from which the four performance levels for the library (Table 4) were computed:
Table 3: Books not found by the users of the University of Ilorin College of Health Sciences Library.
| Table 3: Books not found by the users of the University of Ilorin College of Health Sciences Library. | ||
| Reason for not finding book | Number of books | Percentage of books |
| Acquisition performance (288) | ||
| Book not owned | 288 | 32.88 |
| Circulation performance (224) | ||
| Book in use in library | 92 | 10.50 |
| Book on loan | 132 | 15.07 |
| Library operations performance (218) | ||
| Book mis–shelved | 46 | 5.25 |
| Book on return shelf | 70 | 8.00 |
| Book in place not indicated in catalogue | 56 | 6.39 |
| Book missing | 46 | 5.25 |
| Library user performance (146) | ||
| Book searched using wrong call mark | 46 | 5.25 |
| Book in place indicated in catalogue | 46 | 5.25 |
| Book properly shelved | 54 | 6.16 |
| Total Books not found | 876 | 100.00 |
Figure 1
Table 4: Performance levels for the University of Ilorin College of Health Sciences Library.
| Table 4: Performance levels for the University of Ilorin College of Health Sciences Library. | |
| Performance measure | Value (percent) |
| Acquisition performance (PA) | 87 |
| Circulation performance (PC) | 88 |
| Library operations performance (PL) | 87 |
| User performance (PU) | 90 |