The Fourth International Conference on Grey Literature (GL '99) in Washington, DC, in October 1999 defined grey literature as follows: "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."

In general, grey literature publications are non-conventional, fugitive, and sometimes ephemeral publications. They may include, but are not limited to the following types of materials: reports (pre-prints, preliminary progress and advanced reports, technical reports, statistical reports, memoranda, state-of-the art reports, market research reports, etc.), theses, conference proceedings, technical specifications and standards, non-commercial translations, bibliographies, technical and commercial documentation, and official documents not published commercially (primarily government reports and documents) (Alberani, 1990).

Due to the nature of grey literature, librarians have had difficulty acquiring and making accessible grey literature. At The New York Academy of Medicine, there has been a push by public health and health policy researchers for the Academy Library to obtain this type of material and to add it to the catalog (Gray, 1998). As a result, the Library acquires materials from various organizations publishing in these areas and gives them special cataloging treatment. The Grey Literature Report is the first step in this initiative to not only collect these items for the Academy's collection, but to assist other librarians with collections in these fields in developing theirs.

References

Alberani V, Pietrangeli PDC, Mazza AMR (1990). The use of grey literature in health sciences: a preliminary survey. Bulletin of the Medical Library Association 78(4): 358-363.

GL'99 Conference Program. Fourth International Conference on Grey Literature: New Frontiers in Grey Literature.GreyNet, Grey Literature Network Service. Washington D.C. USA, 4-5 October 1999.

Gray, Bradford H (1998). Sources used in health policy research and implications for information retrieval systems. Journal of Urban Health 75(4): 842-852.