No 4, 1996
 No 3, 1996

Quarterly Newsletter
Vol. 8, No. 2, 1999
ISSN 1389-1804

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Consequences of Networked Grey Literature
NOM & ALA'99, Home to GreyNet
GL'99 Pre-Program
IJGL Homepage
Award for Outstanding Achievement in GL
Website Statistics
GreyNet Express Voucher

Annual Subscription: 20 Euros / 20 USDollars

Editorial Address

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Consequences of Networked Grey Literature
Abstract of Dr. Jagtar Singh's paper for GL'99 Punjabi University, India
jagtar@pbi.ernet.in

With the convergence of the computer and communication technologies and emergence of the Internet, the whole world is becoming a global electronic village. The traditional constraints of space and time stand collapsed, and the multimedia virtual library has become a near reality. We are being challenged by the rapid social, economic, political, cultural, educational, and technological changes. In fact, change is the only constant, and uncertainty is the only certainty of our times. Blurring of boundaries is taking place and the transmutation of library and information resources and services has thrown open new challenges and opportunities to the profession.

Paradigm Shift

There is a paradigm shift from ownership to access; just-in-case to just-in-time; stand alone libraries to networked resources and services; intermediary to end user; print-on-paper to formless data; CUI to GUI; one way dissemination to interactive interfaces. One more trend is visible in the networked environment. It is the marginalization of the white literature and emerging supremacy of grey literature. In cyberspace, there is no competition for space. As such, a lot of junk and informal chat is available via the Internet. Now-a-days, the author is able to become the publisher. The enabling technologies have made this possible. Therefore, in the absence of the traditional peer-review of many of the digital documents the situation is fast deteriorating.

Gatekeepers

In this context, the job of librarians has become very difficult. They are required to redefine their roles. The libraries are supposed to serve as gateways and the librarians as gatekeepers. Today we are surrounded by a number of traditional, automated, digital, and virtual libraries. Numerous networks have really made the world look very small. But in this process of globalization of information, the medium is gaining supremacy at the cost of the message. In fact, there is no place for absolute thinking today. What is grey for many may be white for a few. As such, customer creating value satisfactions should be the motto of the library and information professionals.

Commercial Publishers

We can not depend on the commercial publisher for making Grey Literature available. Library is a social utility and a collective memory of the world. It is the repository of our cultural legacies, it hardly matters if they are in grey or white. It is the job of the librarian to hunt for grey literature from the InterNetbased jungle and add value to it. Today library and information professionals have a wonderful opportunity to create a niche for themselves. In this era of turbulence, the end user is totally bewildered. The librarian is required to help and support him in obtaining his mission by making the needed information available in a timely manner. Here I am reminded of Dr. Ranganathan's Five Laws of Library Science:

Ranganathan's 5 Laws of Library Science Books are for Use Every reader his/her book Every book its reader Save the time of the reader Library is a growing organism

His philosophy, as propounded by these laws, is more relevant today. The reader has no time to waste, and the emerging information society will depend more on grey literature in the networked environment. Librarians will have to save the time of the reader by separating the junk from the quality information. Hence the total quality management (TQM), benchmarking and the learning organization are the most useful idioms for the profession. In fact, in the near future the professionals will have no choice but to provide real-time access to quality information to the netizens.

Clearinghouses

It is the high time that policies be framed and strategies be developed to meet the challenges of the growing universe of grey literature, declining library budgets, increasing diversifications, growing user expectations, and transmutation of grey and white literature. Obsolescence of literature will force the profession to develop new strategies, such as the selective elimination of information (SEI), I mean the networked junk. There is also a strong need for clearinghouses on grey literature, as well as their mirror sites to reduce netizen's rush. The biggest challenge in the context of the networked grey literature lies in identifying, acquiring, processing, repackaging, storing, disseminating, and finally enhancing its use.

The Third International Conference on Grey Literature has done a good job by redefining the concept of grey literature. The most difficult thing is to define a concept and generate consensus. As such, the conference has tried to eliminate confusion from the mind of the masses. With this background, an attempt has been made in this paper to build a case for the bibliographical control of grey literature. It is also emphasized that the value of grey literature must be realized by the educators and the practitioners. Library and information science programmes should have course components on grey literature. State and national libraries must identify, acquire, process and promote the use of Grey Literature. UNESCO, IFLA, FID and similar other bodies can play a significant role in this regard. Regional clearinghouses can also be created with the help and support of these bodies.

Professionals

For the purpose of this paper, a lot of literature has been collected and studied. Interviews have also been conducted with the authorities on grey literature, as well as with the end users. To conclude, it can be said with confidence that in the digital environment, transmutation of the grey and the white literature is taking place at a warp speed. As such, there is a strong need for preparing the professionals to face the challenges of the changing environment. New visions, new policies, new strategies, new skills, and new competencies will be needed in the near future to take the bull of grey literature by the horns. The strength of our services lies in the strength of our weakest link. I have no hesitation in saying that the professionals' lack of access to grey literature is our weakest link in the networked environment.

Abstract of Dr. Jagtar Singh's paper for GL'99 Punjabi University, India
jagtar@pbi.ernet.in

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NOM & ALA'99,
Home to GreyNet

GreyNet will be on tour in the United States with exhibits at NOM, the 20th National Online Meeting, in New York from 18-20 May 1999 and at ALA'99, the American Library Association's Annual Conference, in New Orleans from 26-29 June 1999. GreyNet will use these and other events for its promotion and distribution of the GL'99 Pre-Program and the launch of IJGL, the International Journal on Grey Literature.

If you or a colleague are planning to attend one of these conferences, please stop by and visit us, MCB UP/GreyNet:

ALA'99 Exhibit No. 456-458, Hall C

NOM Exhibit No. 354, Internet Village

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From the GL'99 Pre-Program
The Fourth International Conference on Grey Literature

GL'99 Kellogg Conference Center Washington D.C. USA 4-5 October 1999

Opening Session
S. Costigan	CIAO	USA
H. Artus	IZ	Germany
Plenary Session One Global Assessment of Grey Literature: A Brave New World of Topics, Formats, and Uses
G. McMillan	Virginia Tech	USA
B. Osif	PennState	USA
M. Castriotta [et al]	ISPESL/CNR	Italy
J. Gelfand	UCI	USA
Plenary Session Two Publishing & Archiving Electronic Grey Literature: From Production to Full-Text Storage, Retrieval and Distribution
M. Nelson/K. Maly	NASA-LaRC/ODU	USA
K. Jeffery	CLRC	United Kingdom
D. Cutler	OSTI-DOE	USA
J. Vigen	CERN	Switzerland
Plenary Session Three Copyright and Grey Literature: Authorship, Ownership, and Property Rights
G. Cornish	IFLA	United Kingdom
M. Seadle	MSU	USA
C. de Blaaij	UvA-IVIR	Netherlands
D. Davis	CCC	USA

To receive your free copy of the GL'99 Pre-Program, use the Express Voucher

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IJGL
International Journal on Grey Literature

http://www.mcb.co.uk/ijgl.htm

The International Journal on Grey Literature (ISSN 1466-6189) is a forum for discussion of, and dissemination of knowledge about, the theory, practice, distribution channels, unique attributes, access and control of grey literature in a global context.

The journal reflects the changes in grey literature due to the alternative press movements; options for electronic publishing and archiving; emerging multidisciplinary research patterns; convergence of new contributors, information users and products, and issues related to the identification, selection, acquisition, bibliographic control, access, use, and archiving of grey literature in all subject areas. The journal will be of interest to librarians, academies, government analysts, information industry professionals and publishers.

SCOPE AND TOPICALITY

By definition, Grey Literature is the information and resources that do not categorically fall into what is available via standard traditional or commercial publishing channels. Grey Literature has emerged in scope and importance in recent years due to the proliferation of critical information now readily available to organize and access from electronic publishing ventures.

IJGL will present new material on how grey literature has surfaced in a variety of disciplines and environments allowing for increased visibility, legitimacy and success in many research environments. To promote grey literature in academic and research settings, libraries and government information centres, this journal provides insights and describes methodologies to share its value and contribution to information use, delivery and exchange.

The following illustates some possible journal topics:

• Examples of trends and specific works of GL that have an increased presence in usefulness among readership, such as electronic initiatives and collaboratories of theses, dissertations, preprint & working paper series, technical report literature, oral histories, genealogies, critiques, scientific findings, visual arts, reviews and critiques; international publishing directives; geospatial information, metadata, demographic and statistical data, scientific visualization and new content areas of significance.
• The role of grey literature in relation to retention, holdings, authentication, legitimation, archivability, and its use in different settings and how to properly cite or reference it. The institutional concerns of grey literature and how to organize, describe, promote, preserve and care for it.
• Copyright and intellectual property concerns, licensing, access and ownership issues; costs and resource sharing, security and integrity of content, finding aids for grey literature, institutional liability.

CALL FOR PAPERS

Articles are also being sought on the applications of grey literature for example, in distance learning, records management, archival and museum studies, mixed media collaborations, and other practices. On occasion, thematic issues will be prepared. Each issue will offer highlights of relevant international conferences and meetings, new examples of grey literature released from around the world, introductions to contributors, authors, and creators of grey literature, interviews with people connected to grey literature, and other appropriate columns. Volunteers to be prospective editors of such sections of the journal should contact the IJGL Journal Editor, jgelfand@uci.edu

Julia Gelfand
University of California
UCI Science Library 228
P.O. Box 19556
Irvine, CA 92623-9556, USA

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1999 Award for Outstanding Achievement in the field of Grey Literature http://www.mcb.co.uk/literati

Julia M. Gelfand The UCI Libraries, University of California California, USA Julia Gelfand's work in the field of grey literature commenced well before her paper presented at GL'93, The First International Conference on Grey Literature entitled "Academic libraries and collection development implications for grey literature". Julia was taken up with the changes in the cycle of scholarly communication. She demonstrated that the links between creation/authorship on through publication, bibliographic processing to end-use were shortening. The Internet, electronic publishing and desktop publishing were examples of these changes in scholarly communication. For Julia, grey literature is a medium par excellence demonstrating scholarly communication. With these givens, Julia explored and expanded on the consequences this would have for academic librarians and librarianship. Her analytical approach to the effects on library budgets, library policy, and the relationship between librarian and end-user, were and still are, of value in this field. Two years later, at the Second International Conference on Grey Literature (GL '95), Julia took up where she had left off and in her paper entitled: "Grey literature in new packages: implications from the transition to electronic publishing" she demonstrated the effects that the World Wide Web had in the field of grey literature. Not only demonstrating its potential as a means of electronic publishing, but also demonstrating new types of grey literature created as a result of these technological advancements. Julia took the conference attendees through the effects this would have and which were already being felt by publishers, librarians, Consortia, and end-users alike. At the Third International Conference on Grey Literature (GL'97), Julia once again pursued her creative endeavors by brilliantly demonstrating examples of new scientific grey literature. In her paper entitled "Teaching and exposing grey literature: what the information profession needs to know" she brought examples which had never even come to the minds of most of the audience. Her treatment of scientific visualization, science policy, scientific protocols, image directories, and scientific journalism led to a clamour for her text. Julia accomplished something sensational; she wrote this time not only for the practitioner but also for the academic; not only for the professional but also for the student - the new generation. Julia was able to bring grey literature, not kicking but leaping into the new millennium.

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GreyNet '99 Website Statistics

It's our pleasure to have you visit GreyNet's Website

Should you have a moment before leaving GreyNet's site, we would really like to hear from you. greynet@greynet.org

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Greynet Express Voucher

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