Library Resources and Publication Outputs at IIT Madras

Abstract

Academic libraries play an important role in supporting research and scholarly communication by providing access to relevant information resources. Examining changes in library-resource availability alongside institutional publication output can help describe trends in research productivity and the evolving composition of academic library collections. This study therefore assessed library resources and publication outputs at IIT Madras during 2020–21 to 2024–25. This study examines changes in library resources and publication output at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras during 2020–21 to 2024–25 using data reported in institutional annual reports. The analysis considered library-resource availability, new acquisitions, publication categories, year-over-year growth, cumulative growth, and compound annual growth rate. Across the five-year period, IIT Madras reported 17,461 publications, with an annual mean of 3,492.2. Total publication output increased from 3,351 in 2020–21 to 3,759 in 2024–25, representing cumulative growth of 12.18% and a compound annual growth rate of 2.91%. Papers published in national and international journals accounted for 13,987 publications, or 80.10% of the total, while conference papers increased from 89 to 804. Library-resource data showed a changing collection profile. Total reported resources declined from a peak of 434,790 items in 2021–22 to 334,019 in 2024–25, a decrease of 23.18%, whereas e-book holdings increased from 12,819 to 18,527, representing growth of 44.53%. Annual additions decreased from 13,155 items in 2021–22 to 1,831 in 2024–25, while new purchases of current periodicals fell to zero in the final year. The findings describe concurrent shifts in publication activity and library-resource composition, but the annual-report data do not establish a causal relationship between library holdings and research productivity.