Grey Literature

1
Grey Literature

• LIB 120
• Amanda Izenstark

2
Neither Black nor White

• D. Farace, Third Annual Conference on Grey
  Literature, Luxembourg, November 1997
• that which is produced by government,
  academics, business, and industries, both in
  print and electronic formats, but which is not
  controlled by commercial publishing interests and
  where publishing is not the primary activity of
  the organization.

3
Examples of Grey Literature

• Conference papers
• Newsletters
• Fact Sheets
• Technical reports
• Theses and dissertations
• Brochures

• Government documents
• Manuals
• Web sites!

4
Who produces this stuff?

• Essentially anyone
• Universities
• The government
• Organizations
• Companies
• Industries

5
Why does this matter?

• May be good primary information
• May not be good information!
• May be peer-reviewed or edited
• May not be peer-reviewed or edited!
• May be easy to find
• May not be easy to find!
• And youre going to run into it everywhere!

6
Finding Grey Lit

• The Catalog
• Some databases
• Good ol Google
• GreyLit Network A Science Portal of Technical
  Reports
• http//www.osti.gov/graylit/

7
More about grey literature

• GreyNet Grey Literature Network Service
• http//www.greynet.org/pages/1/index.htm
• The Role of Grey Literature in the Sciences, by
  Irwin Weintraub
• http//library.brooklyn.cuny.edu/access/greyliter
  .htm

8
Evaluating Grey Literature

• Use the evaluation skills youve been honing all
  semester.
• Look for the authors credentials