Returns on library investment: seeking causative relationship between the library investment and the institutional research output

Purpose This study aims to seek the causative relationship between the library budget and research output with the ranking of 20 leading medial institutes in India. More so, the study also attempts to find out whether the libraries associated with academic and research institutes in general and medical institutes in particular have turned redundant or irrelevant, or have become more relevant in the changing times by embracing technology in its every new form. Design/methodology/approach The study is based on the secondary data retrieved from the official website of the Ministry of Education, Government of India and research output against each institution under study has been retrieved from Scopus. The study is limited to Indian medical institutions that participated in the 2019 National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), conducted by the Ministry of Education, India each year. The findings of the study can be generalized to all the medical institutions of the country. Findings On average, INR 160.90m were spent by each medical institute on the procurement of library resources at an average of INR 0.104m on procurement of resources against each individual published research article. Of the total research articles published by medical institutes under study, 26.39% of research articles were published by researchers from AIIMS, New Delhi, alone. Research limitations/implications Financial aid or funding is very vital for the survival, sustenance and excellence of research institutions, and this funding becomes more important when the investigation is aimed toward the furtherance of medical advances. Any medical advancement is hell-bent to influence the overall welfare and betterment of society at large, whereby the benefit of any investment made in medical science is bound to be reaped by one and all alike. Originality/value In India, a good number of studies have been undertaken on the NIRF data to dive deeper to assess the role and importance of libraries in the overall ranking of institutions like universities, management institutes, engineering and technology institutes, but no major study has been so far conducted covering leading medical institutes in India. The study is the original and first of its kind undertaken in India.