New forms, subjects and uses of electronic grey literature

The older definitions of grey literature all shared some features, namely that grey literature is difficult to access and stays outside the commercial network of publishing and distribution. Mainly documents issued by governments and scientific institutes belonged to this category. Thanks to national and international regulations, the bibliographic control of these documents is not hopeless anymore. Well-organised document supply systems and centres have come into being (e.g. BLDSC, INIST, NTIS, etc.). The problem is not availability, but how one learns about these sources. The databases of grey literature are organised within a discipline or a broader field, e.g. GL Compendium for the grey literature of economy and business, ERIC for that of education and pedagogy, etc. According to a 1993 estimation, the quantity of grey literature is 3 or 4 times that of traditional literature. The genres and the contents of grey documents varies to a great extent according to the intentions of the publishers. An Italian survey of grey literature put on and cited on the webservers of research institutes (D. Luzi) has shown that 61% of the institutes have published grey literature, and meanwhile cited the grey literature and sources prepared by the institute. Technical reports and conference proceedings got the most citations. Researchers are more and more ready to rely on electronically available information, grey literature, as opposed to unaffordable journals or books. Academic institutions make their grey publications available free of charge or at very reasonable prices. The majority of grey literature issued by governments is also available free, and an increasing portion of this literature appears on the Internet for free use.