ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 244 / C & R L N ew s tively engaged in defining an appropriate federal role to contribute tow ard a solution. But we all ac­ knowledge th a t Congress cannot solve the problem alone—nor can any other single agent. The enor­ m ity of the problem and the costs associated w ith developing and im plem enting program s to p re ­ serve brittle books dictate a responsibility w ithin every sector of the nation. Therefore, while the proposed W hite House Conference on L ibrary and Inform ation Services will not “solve” the brittle book problem we consider here today, it would provide a forum to continue to raise the level of un­ derstanding about the scope and seriousness of the challenge we all face. W e appreciate the support members of the Subcommittee showed in the past for the Conference and hope we m ay count on th at support continuing again this year. To sum up: W e recognize the urgency and m ag­ nitude of the library m aterials preservation prob­ lem. W e have a plan whereby decisions can be m ade as to w hat m aterial needs preservation and in w h at priority. W e have a rough idea of the costs in­ volved. W e accept the concept of reasonable cost sharing. And we are rather well equipped—except for the lack of a federal policy of com m itm ent to help resolve the problem of brittle library m ateri­ als, and except for sufficient funding. To improve access to cultural resources and safe­ guard our own future, the Congress must act, p ro­ viding leadership and help w ith financial aid. On behalf of the Association of Research Libraries and the American Library Association, I request your support. ■ ■ S ta lk in g th e e lu siv e g r e y lite r a tu r e B y P e te r A llison Head, T am im ent Institute Library N ew York University A neglected category of materials w ith very special problems. We call it grey or fugitive literature because it eludes easy definition. I t ’s all around us, b u t it is seldom central to our concerns as librarians or in­ form ation professionals. You can’t buy it in book­ stores and most of it isn’t m arketed very actively to libraries. Although most grey literature is aim ed at a non-academ ic audience, there is an active strain of grey literature w ithin the scholarly com m unica­ tion process. Special libraries have always collected grey literature and used it effectively w ithin a me­ diated environm ent. Larger, centralized academic libraries have found it problem atic. Changes in the r e w a r d system w ith in h ig h e r e d u c a tio n a n d greater emphasis on the training of professionals and practitioners have increased interest in this sort of m aterial. At the same time, traditional solutions th a t have provided access and bibliographic con­ trol to large bodies of grey lite ratu re are being called into question. Most grey literature does not contribute to the growth of fundam ental knowledge. It applies exist­ ing knowledge to real w orld problems. It digests an d su m m arizes k n o w led g e for busy decision m akers. It advocates p a rtic u la r policy choices based on a com bination of knowledge and group interest. It advertises the accomplishments, collec­ M ay 1987 / 245 tions and research capabilities of particular organi­ zations. It assesses feasibility and anticipates im­ pacts. It aggregates statistics, compiles inventories and issues standards, guidelines, plans, and prog­ nostications. Almost every field has some sort of grey litera­ ture. In the perform ing arts almost all w ritten tex ts—scrip ts, screenplays, scores, a c to r’s editions—have a fugitive aspect. Exhibit catalogs, maps, and architects plans also qualify. The largest amount of grey literature, however, is generated by disciplines and professions with a large audience of educated practitioners working outside the academy. Business, criminal justice, development economics, engineering, health care, labor rela­ tions, and public administration are just some of the subjects awash with grey literature. Our own fields, higher education and librarianship, are sim­ ilarly inundated. As the training of practitioners and professionals of all sorts has become a larger part of the higher education enterprise, the demand for grey litera­ ture has accelerated. For several good reasons, li­ braries have been reluctant to respond. Because this literature is not actively marketed to libraries, it is expensive to search out and often frustratingly difficult to acquire. Consultants and contractors prepare reports for paying clients who generally control any subsequent distribution. Work funded by government and foundation grants is often hap­ hazardly distributed because the producers lack marketing expertise and economic incentive. At a different extreme, the demand for certain kinds of market research and executive intelligence services permits their producers to price such products be­ yond the reach of libraries. Although grey literature should not be confused with ephemera, very little of it can approximate Ezra Pound’s criterion for poetry, “news that stays news.” Because it addresses practical problems and c o n te m p o ra ry issues, its use v alu e decreases sharply with age. Speed of acquisition is conse­ quently crucial. Since very few libraries acquire and formally catalog this literature, those that wish to do so may discover th at even timely acquisitions disappear into cataloging backlogs because there is “no copy in the system.” Most grey literature is additionally decidedly in­ substantial by library standards. It is often deliber­ ately short because it must compete for the atten­ tion of busy people. It often costs more to bind than to buy and is easily misplaced in open stack li­ braries because call numbers cannot be placed on thin spines. The working paper and the dissertation have traditionally been scholarly forms of grey litera­ ture. Librarians have generally declined to collect these preliminary statements, preferring to await their revised appearance as journal articles and scholarly monographs. C urrent circumstances and practices, however, have eroded the logic of this position. As more Ph.D ’s go into non-academic ca- Grey literature in the social sciences (courtesy of New York University). reers, significant dissertations are not always re­ vised for publication. For different reasons, work­ ing papers are no longer predictably recast as journal articles. In an environment that stresses the pursuit of external funds, w hat was once a subsidi­ ary purpose behind a w orking p ap e r series— advertising the work being done at a particular re­ search center—now appears to be both primary and sufficient in many cases. Most librarians commonly associate grey litera­ ture w ith technical reports, a poorly com pre­ hended genre of material generally consigned to the Engineering Library or the netherworld of Government Documents. As the largest funder of scientific, technical and social science research, the federal government is indeed a prime sponsor of grey literature. More importantly, it has sustained a system of information clearinghouses th at have assured continuous access to vast numbers of publi­ cations and provided both print and online index­ ing to these databases. In the past the federal government, through the National Technical Information System (NTIS), ERIC, the Departm ent of Energy’s Technical In­ form ation C enter and num erous other agency sponsored databases, kept a great deal of grey liter­ ature perpetually available. We cannot be sure that this will continue to be the case. The privatiza­ tion of NTIS remains an avowed goal of the current administration and rumors persist about a planned “reexamination” of the ERIC system. Since the importance of grey literature to our us­ ers is increasing, we need to concern ourselves with any developments that affect its availability and bibliographic control. As our library holdings are increasingly represented in automated form, col­ lections that cannot easily be converted to MARC 246 / C & R L N ew s form at are marginalized. If we can’t afford the tim e and expense involved in acquiring grey litera­ ture on a piecemeal basis, we will have to look to the private sector for assistance. U nfortunately perform ance to date isn’t encouraging. A Health Care microform collection based on grey literature received by the Public H ealth Service’s Parklaw n L ibrary collapsed w ith the Microfilming C orpora­ tion of America, and has not been resuscitated. Re­ search Publications failed to find a sufficient sub­ scriber base for its proposed “Papers in the Policy Sciences.” In a m arketing effort th a t m ay presage the practices of a privatized NTIS, C hadw yck­ Healey is now offering “Research Studies by the National Park Service 1935-1984” as a $24,500 m i­ crofiche set, atavistically tied, for the m om ent at least, to a microform edition of the Park Service’ in-house database, the C ultural Resources M an­ agement Bibliography. s The private sector cannot be expected to solve our problems for us if we don’t com m unicate w ith them . If we w ant certain bodies of grey literature organized, indexed and shipped to us in timely m i­ croform installments, we need to develop our p ri­ orities and pitch the idea to potential vendors. If we w a n t such collections to include m achine- readable records for our online catalogs, we need to tell our network systems people th a t this sort of co­ operation is a priority. Lastly, we have to be p re­ pared to pay for the products we w ant. E ditor’s Note: A t the A L A Annual Conference in San Francisco this June, A C R L ’s Law and Political Science Section and S R R T ’s Alternatives in Print Task Force w ill co-sponsor a program on grey liter­ ature in the public policy process. See page 269 fo r details. ■ ■ T h e te r m in a l p r o fe ssio n a l d egree: W h a t d o es it m e a n for y o u ? Do you have a term inal degree? Do you w ant one? Do you care? On Sunday, June 28,1987, from 8:00 to 10:00 p.m . at the ALA Annual Conference in San F rancisco, the ACRL A cadem ic Status Com m ittee will sponsor an open hearing on the ter­ m inal professional degree for academ ic librarians. Some consider this issue to be a pain th a t will not go away. Others simply do not care about the m at­ ter because it does not seem to affect them . But w hat are the issues which drive the questions about a term inal degree? The m aster’s degree in library science has been shaped typically as the postbaccalaureate degree conferred upon candidates following one year of graduate study. It is viewed by m any in the field as the term inal professional degree, although others view it as a stepping-stone to the doctorate and a foundation for further enrichm ent in the field. The revised ACRL statem ent as it is being pro­ posed by the Academic Status Com m ittee states: “The M aster’s degree from an academ ic p ro ­ gram accredited by the American L ibrary Associa­ tion is the appropriate term inal professional degree for academic librarians.” These 22 words focus the debate, but the issue of the term inal degree is only one concern raised by the statem ent. Almost every w ord could be de­ bated at the hearing even though the statem ent continues to recognize the m aster’s degree from an ALA–accredited program and it establishes the de­ gree as the term inal professional degree. Through the Com m ittee’s work, ACRL is in the process of adopting this statem ent as a policy of the Division. It should be a m em bers’ statem ent, not the Com ­ m ittee’s or the Division’s. It should reflect w h at the membership wants as the reality of the profession. After the hearing, the Academic Status C om m it­ tee will take ap p ro p riate action to fo rw ard the statem ent to the ACRL Board of Directors for ap­ proval and adoption. If you care about your profession and the im pact of the “term inal degree” and your status, attend the hearing and state your views. If you will not be attending the A nnual Conference in San F ra n ­ cisco, please send your comments to the Com m ittee chair, Keith C ottam , 1167 Inca Drive, Laram ie, WY 82070, or call him at the University of W yo­ m ing at (307) 766-3279. ■ ■ Borrowing special collections materials for exhibition At its 1987 M idwinter Meeting the RBMS Ex­ ecutive Com m ittee accepted a docum ent pre­ pared by the Ad Hoc Com m ittee for Develop­ in g G u id e lin e s fo r B o rro w in g S p ecial Collection Materials for Exhibition. The docu­ m ent, “Inform ation for Prospective Borrow­ ers,” was published in the Spring 1987 issue of R are Books & M a n u scrip ts L ib ra ria n sh ip , p p .27-34, and will be subm itted to the ACRL Board of Directors for final adoption. Anyone wishing to com m ent on the docum ent m ay con­ tact: Ellen S. D unlap, C hair, Rosenbach M u­ seum & Library, 2010 DeLaneey Place, Phila­ delphia, PA 19103.