No 4, 1996
 No 3, 1996

Quarterly Newsletter
Vol. 6, No. 4, 1997
ISSN 0929-0923

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GL'97 - The Luxembourg Convention
Curriculum Development and GL
NASA/LaRC Electronic Survey
Utility of GL in Security Studies
GL'97 - Questionnaire Results
Pre-Conference Announcement
Order Your copy of the GL'97 Proceedings

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Editorial Address

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GL'97 - The Luxembourg Convention
Third International Conference on Grey Literature

The Third International Conference on Grey Literature referred to by many as "The Luxembourg Convention" has been evaluated by participants from the twenty-four countries represented. The results of the questionnaire demonstrate a very successful S&T Event.

This conference was successful in redefining the term Grey Literature for the 21st Century

"that which is produced on all levels of government, academics, business and industry in print and electronic formats, but which is not controlled by commercial publishers."

A definition that will also be remembered by The Luxembourg Convention.

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Curriculum Development and GL
A Practitioner's Challenge

Library schools and colleges have and continue to neglect and underplay the significance of grey literature in their curricula. These schools maintain the status quo and remain snug in their programs geared to bookstores and commercial publishers.

For these institutions grey literature remains a footnote in readers and text books along with other terms such as alternative press, alternative literature, report literature, unconventional and non-conventional literature, etc. The broader context in which curriculum development can be linked to gl spans from the production and use of grey literature by practitioners in various fields of science, government, and business. When the archaeologist deposits his/her field report as the only artifact of their work, when the journalist bases his/her article on sources, which they explicitly refer to as grey, when the economist produces his/her working paper or the policy maker publishes a green paper on patents and innovation, then the curriculum in library schools is already shown to be circumvented and passé.

While this in itself is not a very flattering statement, it is not meant solely to criticize but instead to challenge the schools of library and information science into rethinking and hopefully reformulating their curricula as it applies to grey literature.

The Editor, December 1997

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NASA/LaRC Electronic Survey Letter to the Editor

Dear GreyNet,

May I solicit your help in obtaining the cooperation and assistance of the International Grey Literature Community. The Langley Technical Report Server (LTRS) is an electronic report distribution system server that uses World Wide Web (WWW) protocols and contains NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC)-authored technical reports. Over 1200 technical reports are currently available to the world via desktop:

URL: http://techreports.larc.nasa.gov/ltrs

We have added an (electronic) survey on LTRS that is designed to provide us with user feedback (input) concerning the format of LaRC-authored technical reports. The survey takes an average of 22.3 minutes to complete. The email addresses and locations of survey participants are confidential and are by design not known to us.

The purpose of the survey is to determine the preferences of users such that we can design technical reports for use in an electronic format. Our goal is 200 completed by February 1998.

Using your great offices, would it be possible to solicit the help of the Grey Literature community (worldwide) to find engineers and scientists who would take time from their workday to complete the survey? Your help in this endeavor would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

Thom Pinelli,
NASA-LaRC, Educational Technology and Distance Learning Officer

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Utility of Grey Literature in Security Studies
CNS - Center for Nonproliferation Studies

Researchers can learn a great deal about a country's military agenda by tracking that nation's scientific, technological, and commercial programs. Analysts are finding that they can use company data to identify potential military developments.

For example, Iraq obtained much of its weapons technology from companies in France, Switzerland, and Germany. Additionally, by tracking the backgrounds of scientists employed in national laboratories a researcher may discover weapons programs under development. Scientist's backgrounds are often included in articles, which they have authored for technical journals. Grey Literature (GL), which comprises a significant part of open-source information, can answer many questions regarding security studies by providing valuable insights into national military programs.

Grey Literature is one of the richest resources available for scientific, technological, and industrial information. Various types of GL documents include technical and economic field reports, working papers, roundtable discussions, unofficial government documents, proceedings, preprints, research studies, dissertations, theses, company brochures, trade literature, market surveys, and newsletters. GL may be academic, scientific, and commercial in nature. It may be written to prove theories, illustrate facts, or report activities. In the case of company brochures, it is meant to market or promote business activities.

There are several unique qualities that make Grey Literature significant as a source for security studies. First, it is not distributed through normal publication channels and, therefore, is hard to identify and difficult to access. Second, GL is usually uncensored and more directly relevant than many other sources of information. Third, it often cuts across a variety of disciplines to provide an overview of any given situation. Finally, GL can communicate results, market products, and promote discussions among professionals. This is quite different from national statements that convey official positions, promote policies, and define export practices.

Some uses for GL in security studies include the capability to corroborate or refute, to identify or discover, and to predict. Grey Literature can corroborate or refute statements and theories by providing the underlying facts of a situation. Recently, while discussing transfers of their dual-use items to a country, a government official dismissed the utility of the items as minimal. Later, at a technical conference, a scientist from the receiving country explained how they had used the transferred items to develop new weapons systems. Thus, he inadvertently refuted the statement of the government official and confirmed the suspicions of intelligence analysts.

Grey Literature can identify national military capabilities and their related threats. Quite often company brochures or annual reports will expose new R&D, technological advancements, mergers, office expansions, and strategic alliances. These publications may define the dual-use nature of these activities or products and thus will exhibit the potential military capability of a nation.

Additionally, Grey Literature can uncover technical experts and academic links, tell stories about the type of expertise being used in the research, and bring national research projects into perspective. The normal practice for authors is to give a brief biography at the end of a presented paper. These biographies describe the universities attended, subjects studied, and professors that they studied under, which may point to their involvement in weapons development programs.

Using Grey Literature, researchers can predict a country's current military capability and gauge their ability to build new weapons systems. Company brochures or national program guides may be intended to lure potential investors to contribute to the development of their programs. However, these studies on systems and proposed acquisitions may bring to light significant details on the uses of seemingly unimportant products such as machine tools, trailers, or aircraft engines. The researcher can then piece together the dual-use attributes of systems that can be adapted for military use. A researcher may also begin to see the development of a company and predict that it may move into vertical markets such as full weapons systems.

Just as Grey Literature can help predict military capabilities, it can also forecast the military intentions of a nation. Some activities, procedures, research, professions, or systems can only be used for the purpose of developing weapons systems. For instance, a scientist mentions in his paper presented at an environmental conference that he also conducted research on cultivating a certain bacteria. When it is known that such bacteria only have use in a biological weapon, then an analyst may reasonably conclude that the home nation of the researcher may have a biological weapons program.

By nature, Grey Literature is an open, transparent, yet elusive means of revealing national military attributes and intentions. It supports theories, forecasts intentions, and assists policy makers to view nations without the biases inherent in official government documents. GL identifies the new projects, technological developments, and scientific research, which are critical to the military capabilities of nations. Finally, Grey Literature supports the researcher's objectivity, because it is not sensitized, and provides the facts, not the party line.

The Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to tracking the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. CNS has developed a system identifying and acquiring grey literature by networking with other researchers, attending trade shows and conferences, and monitoring information services (both government and commercial) that indicate research in progress to point to useful GL as it is produced. As a part of its acquisition project, CNS has contacted GreyNet, Grey Literature Network Service.

This contact will hopefully lead to the mobilization of a group of organizations involved in the area of security studies, where access to grey literature is part of their research. CNS envisions developing a regime that would provide a means of posting new literature for exchange or use by other members. As a part of this project, Jack Boureston at CNS would appreciate your comments, suggestions, and welcome your participation in any capacity.

Article by Jack Boureston
Information Collections Manager
CNS, Center for Nonproliferation Studies,
Monterey Institute of International Studies
Tel: +1-408-647-3599, Fax:+1-408-647-6522,
Email jboureston@miis.edu

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GL'97 - Questionnaire Results
Third Interanational Conference on Grey Literature

In the open-ended part of the Conference Questionnaire, 57% of the presentations were mentioned one or more times as being the "Best Presentation at GL'97". The three presentations most often cited were that of:

1. Thomas Pinelli and Vicki Golich (USA)
   NASA/LaRC and California State Univ.
2. Paul Sturges (UK)
   Loughborough University
3. John Mackenzie Owen (Netherlands)
   University of Amsterdam and Tilburg Innovation Centre for Electronic Resources

According to the respondents, the information found in the conference materials
(Announcements, Call-for-Papers, Pre-Program, Conference Updates, Newsletters, etc.) was:

1. Quite Satisfactory (72%)
2. Satisfactory (28%)
3. Unsatisfactory (0%)
4. No Response(0%)

The administration of GL'97 including the pre-registration, the correspondence, the registration desk, etc. was:

1. Quite Satisfactory (78%)
2. Satisfactory (22%)
3. Unsatisfactory (0%)
4. No Response(0%)

The facilities and services at the conference centre (catering, seating arrangements, technical equipment, etc.) were:

1. Quite Satisfactory (69%)
2. Satisfactory (31%)
3. Unsatisfactory (0%)
4. No Response(0%)

The content and quality of the Authors' presentations were:

1. Quite Satisfactory (17%)
2. Satisfactory (61%)
3. Unsatisfactory (11%)
4. No Response(11%)

Based on comments and recommendations recorded in the Questionnaire and from Position Statements made by Spokesmen from the various Working Groups, the GL'99 Program has been drafted (see GL'99 Announcement).

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Pre-Conference Announcement
Draft Program

GL'99 NEW FRONTIERS IN GREY LITERATURE Draft Program
Session 1 Global Assessment of Grey Literature: A brave new world of topics, formats, and uses
Session 2 Archiving Electronic Grey Literature: From bibliographic retrieval to full-text storage and distribution
Session 3 Copyright and Grey Literature: Authorship, Ownership, and Property Rights

Program and Organizing Bureau:
TransAtlantic - GreyNet, Grey Literature Network Service
Koninginneweg 201, 1075 CR Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Email: greynet@greynet.org
Tel/Fax: 31-20-671.1818

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