The term 'grey literature' brings connotations of bleakness, apathy, indifference, and questionable authority to mind. Upon investigation this is far from true, unless you find papers from eminent scientists on sea grass to be boring. Well everyone is different. To these writers, the 'grey' in grey literature more likely has some connection to the brain's 'grey matter' since so much of it seems highly intellectual and is significant for research and development in many subject areas. An article appearing on the Internet in Information World Review, calls grey literature "the unsung hero, the foot soldier, the foundation of the building" (IWR 1996); it is literature that is not usually attainable through conventional channels. In his informative book on grey literature, Charles P. Augur writes that this is not a new phenomenon of the late twentieth century but something considered a genre since at least the 1920s, particularly in Europe among the scientific circles (Augur 1989,7). Grey literature is here to stay, but what is it?
M. C. Debachere has written that it is easier to describe, rather than define grey literature. Collectively the term covers an extensive range of materials that cannot be found easily through conventional channels such as publishers, "but which is frequently original and usually recent" (Debachere 1995,94). Peter Hirtle in Broadsides vs. Grey Literature defines it as:
The quasi-printed reports, unpublished but circulated papers, unpublished proceedings of conferences, printed programs from conferences, and the other non-unique material which seems to constitute the bulk of our modern manuscript collections (Hirtle 1991).
Important contributions to the genre are translations, constituting a major part of grey literature. Two reasons can easily be discerned to explain why. If half the scientific and technical literature is written in languages other than English, and if scientists from all around the world, including those from English-speaking countries want to access the research, they need translations of the work (Augur 1989,63). Dissertations also make up an important part of grey literature, as well as 'meeting papers' or preprints that are given out before conferences and meetings, and could end up as journal articles.
Grey literature was for many years synonymous with 'reports literature'. At the turn of the century, documents evolving out of research and development, particularly from the aircraft and aeronautics industries were a very important means of communicating the results of research testing (Augur 1989,12). One such report from 1915 was called The Behaviour of Aeroplanes in Gusts, the first report written by NASA (Augur 1989,13). However, it was the onslaught of World War Two which had the greatest impact on report literature, transforming it into "a major means of communication" (Augur 1989,12).
The hallmark of that war was the development of technologically-advanced weaponry, from sophisticated tanks to the atomic bomb. These breakthroughs in science made accurate and speedy communications a necessity. The technical report was widely used to disseminate information (White 1984,18). The decades that followed saw the continuation of staggering amounts of scientific and technological research, which was amassed to improve both military and communication systems. The one thing that made grey literature so attractive and "attained its importance as a separate medium of communication was because of an initial need for security or confidentiality classifications which prevent documents being published in the conventional manner" (Augur 1989, 1).
In recent years, technical and scientific literature has continued to grow, but now grey
literature reports are coming from many different avenues. The following types of organizations
are issuing grey literature and this list has been copied verbatim from Charles Augur's book (page
22):
Associations
Churches
County councils
Educational establishments
Federations
Institutes
Institutions
Laboratories
Libraries
Museums
Private publishers
Research establishments
Societies
Trade unions
Trusts
Universities
By the 1970s, it was a recognized dissemination vehicle for many organizations and considered important reading throughout the world. The problem was, it was not getting any easier to find. Consequently, both the Commission of the European Communities and the British Library Lending Division came together to form a very important database for grey literature called SIGLE or System for Information on Grey Literature in Europe. It is a bibliographic database that covers nonconventional European literature in the fields of pure and applied sciences, and technology. By 1984, social sciences, economics, and the humanities were also included. SIGLE gives access to grey literature such as discussion and policy documents, research reports, theses, working and conference papers, and some important official publications, with citations in English. Grey literature is increasing in quantity because it does have the advantage of great flexibility and speed, and allows those who write and issue it to be very concise, exact, and focused (Augur 1989, 1). However, there are some inherent problems with grey literature which must be discussed.
As Charles P. Augur points out in his book, the core reasons for difficulties in identifying and acquiring this kind of literature are due to its "poor bibliographic information and control, non- professional layout and format, and low print runs" (Augur 1989,3). The implementation of bibliographic control through ISBN, ISSN, and report numbers has been somewhat helpful, but also disorganized. For instance, reports, making up the lion's share of grey literature, do not as a rule use ISBNs, which require a depository (Augur 1989,39). Instead, report numbering was initiated as a means to introduce standardization. The problem is that these numbers were designed to include subject matter, date, form, agency, security classification, location, and additional data, and consequently, are quite long and confusing. In addition, given the nature of the literature, some categories do contain security restrictions (Augur 1989,18). Furthermore, non-availability may be due to "incomplete or incorrect identification," since accession or report numbers must be correct to attain access (Augur 1989,19). M. C. Debachere points out that problems arise in libraries when a patron requests a particular document, and it is not apparent where to begin the search (Debachere 1995,95).
Many attempts have been made to provide sourcing for grey literature, including: the Griseli Project in France; the UK's British Library Document Supply Centre; the Russian Union Catalogue of Grey Literature; and the previously mentioned SIGLE, which is maintained and operated under the auspices of the European Association for Grey Literature Exploitation (EAGLE). AGRINDEX database is available for life sciences and agriculture, but to date, very few grey literature documents are found in it; however, the energy and aerospace sciences are predominate in STAR (Scientific and Technical Reports) through NASA.
Many other countries have appointed organizations to keep track of the grey literature being produced. In Canada, the Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (CISTI) has a network set up to provide information to scientists and researchers, operating a document delivery service that has three million titles in its database, and two million technical reports on microfiche. The United States issues a general index of government publications and technical reports in the Monthly Catalog of US Government Publications. Other publications report the work commissioned by the United States government, but use the minimalist approach of few details, no abstracts, and no indexes. In addition, the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) developed UAP or the Universal Availability of Publications program which is supported by UNESCO, and offers a wide range of educational, scientific, social, economic, and technical materials to anyone anywhere (Augur 1989,34).
Grey literature is sometimes available through exchange agreements with other organizations or by subscription. Annual subscriptions are expensive, but convenient if complete subject coverage is needed (Augur 1989,30). Other facilities include UNESCO book coupons, monthly standing orders, and the use of a company such as Communicating Science, to find the information, or Crimdoc, which maintains a criminology library database for grey literature from the criminology field. Currently, many items can be purchased through booksellers and subscription agents as the scope of the literature is growing.
Overall, there are some important points to remember if there is to be a request for grey literature, namely: if there is a known ISBN use it; reports are often issued what are called accession or report numbers that can be crucial for identification; and date, author, title, and originating body will be expected (Augur 1989,3 1). Translations can be found in UNESCO's Index Translationum, through the International Translations Centre, the British Library Document Supply Centre, the Consolidated Index ofTranslations in English, the Naval Ocean Systems Center, and the Canadian Index of Scientific Translations, among other sources. Meeting papers prove to be more difficult in obtaining, but Simonton's Directory might be helpful.
Caloguing and maintenance of grey literature must be considered on a library to library basis. It would appear that special libraries are primarily concerned with this literature, but academic libraries will have their share, depending upon the academic scope. Small libraries may
not catalogue at all, and choose to file the grey literature in a pamphlet or vertical file collection
(Augur 1989,40). AACR2 rules are available, which specify to catalogue under the corporate
body if possible. Another option is to use the guidelines set down by COSATI for technical and
scientific reports. The following elements are included in the descriptive cataloguing process for COSATI
and appear verbatim from Charles P. Augur's book (p. 40):
1. Accession or report number
2. Corporate author
3. Title
4. Descriptive role - subtitle or progress report etc.
5. Personal author
6. Date
7. Pagination
8. Contract number
9. Report number
10. Availability
11. Supplementary note
12. Security classification.
There are many possibilities of course, but it would be more practical for some kind of universal procedure to be used to ensure that bibliographic access is available for all who need it. Certainly the Internet will revolutionize access to some kinds of grey literature, but it is so easily lost in the chaos that very few people can sift through (for instance see: GreyNet, Grey Literature Network Service at http://www.konbib.nl/infolev/greynet/home.html). Solutions for its identification, acquisition, and cataloguing are far from solved, and need universal cooperation and consensus.