STS Publisher/Vendor Relations Discussion Group   [Conference Report]

  	
  	
  	
  


	Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship  	Winter 1998  


	DOI:10.5062/F4WW7FNP


    

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Conference Reports
      STS Publisher/Vendor Relations Discussion Group:  Summary of MidWinter ALA Presentation, January 10, 1998
    Notes from the speaker:
Dominic John Farace
  Director, TransAtlantic|GreyNet
  Grey Literature Network Service
greynet@inter.nl.net    

GREY LITERATURE AND PUBLISHING
    Thank you for this opportunity to attend and address your  discussion group on science publishing. Special thanks to  Julia Gelfand from the University of California, Irvine Campus  for putting me in contact with your chairperson Susan Starr.    In November 1997, the term grey literature was redefined at  the Third International Conference on Grey Literature, GL'97.  The revised definition has come to be known as "The Luxembourg  Convention," after the city in which this conference was held.  The definition of grey literature now reads: "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."

    Grey literature differs from commercial publications in that  it is not based solely or even principally on an economic  model, but rather on a communication model. Otherwise stated,  all aspects of commercial publishing apply to grey literature,  but its existence is not determined merely by dollars and  cents.

    In the grey circuit, end-users remain the consumers of  information, intermediaries continue in their intermediate  roles, but the publishers come to be recognized as "corporate  authors." These corporate authors, operating on all levels of  government, academics, business, and industry have a publishing  function; however, this is not their primary mission or  activity. In fact many of these corporate authors are only  recently becoming aware of their publishing role. This  awareness has in part been brought on by the Internet. And  from my experience with these producers of grey literature,  they like their new role as well as the status it holds.

    This is indeed a fortunate development, for according to the  Keynote Speaker at GL'97, Prof. John Mackenzie Owen, the  commercial publishing industry is at its end. With the  increase of costs, their slowness to move, their many  restrictions to access, and their disregard for archiving, the  end-users are experiencing a decrease in value added by  commercial publishers. As a consequence, all information in  the future will be characterized as grey.

    Publishing printed and electronic grey literature is now seen  by its producers, the corporate authors, for what it has come  to embody, namely the state-of-the-art, the cutting edge,  current information, issued by the source, open to the public,  not controlled solely for commercial gain.

    

TransAtlantic/GreyNet
  Grey Literature Network Service
  Koninginneweg 201, 1075 CR Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  Tel/Fax: 31-20-671.1818
  E-mail: greynet@inter.nl.net
  URL {http://www.konbib.nl/infolev/greynet/}
  URL {gopher://gopher.konbib.nl/11/greynet/}