Gray Lit Discussion Points for Annual Meeting

Submitted by rsarmiento on Wed, 01/08/2014 - 08:07

Grey Literature

 Grey literature

  • Produced on all levels of government, academia, business
  • Publishing is not the primary activity of the producing body
  • Difficult to identify and obtain through usual publishing channels
  • Lack of bibliographic control
  • Often not captured in databases and catalogs

 Within transportation, grey literature encompasses, but is not limited to:

  • Technical reports
  • Project reports
  • Working papers
  • Technical notes
  • Environmental impact statements
  • Consultant reports
  • Interim and draft reports
  • Memos
  • Engineering documents
  • Conference proceedings
  • Preprints

Aspects of grey literature we may want to consider include:

  • Production
  • Processing
  • Distribution
  • Access
  • Use
  • Preservation

Discussion points for LIST meeting:

  • What types of literature pose biggest challenges?
  • What are most important categories?
  • What's most needed and most elusive?
  • Where could LIST make an impact? What could we tackle short-term or long-term?
    • Disseminate information such as Grey Guide Repository for good practices and Guidelines for the Production of Scientific and Technical Reports: How to Write and Distribute Grey Literature
    • Encourage agencies to deposit their reports and other grey literature in repositories
      • Produce list of recommended repositories
      • Promote how such deposits are in agencies’ interests
  • Develop guidelines of alternative means of discovering (find and access) grey literature, such as scanning bibliographies and contacting researchers.

 R.Evans/K.Levine 

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