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Grey materials

English translation: grey literature

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English term or phrase:	Grey materials
English translation:	grey literature
Entered by:	Nadia Ayoub

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14:01 Nov 9, 2009

English to English translations [PRO]
Social Sciences - Government / Politics / Democracy

English term or phrase: Grey materials

"Researchers and librarians will become the custodians of the materials being produced for educators and citizens. These educators and citizens require information about the provenance of a publication. But often, this is not available, because materials used for educational purposes in this enterprise are ephemeral or grey materials. In addition, little thought is given to the durability of the materials, so packages are prepared in which a manual might have all the suggested information that follows, but its component parts may not."

I'm not sure about the meaning of "Grey" in this context.

Nadia Ayoub KudoZ activity Questions: 74 (1 open) (2 closed without grading) Answers: 3367 Egypt
Local time: 03:48

grey literature

Explanation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_literature
"Grey literature (or gray literature) is a term used ... to refer to a body of materials that cannot be found easily through conventional channels such as publishers, "but which is frequently original and usually recent. ... Examples of grey literature include technical reports from government agencies or scientific research groups, working papers from research groups or committees, white papers, or preprints. The term grey literature is often, but not exclusively, used for scientific research.>

Selected response from:

Kathryn Litherland
United States
Local time: 20:48

Grading comment

Many thanks Kathryn :)
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

5 +9

grey literature

Kathryn Litherland

4 +2

literature that is not usually attainable through conventional channels

David Hollywood

leaflets, pamphlets, handouts, etc

Sheila Wilson

Answers

12 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +9

grey materials

grey literature

Kathryn Litherland
United States
Local time: 20:48
Works in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 8

Grading comment

Many thanks Kathryn :)

13 mins confidence:

grey materials leaflets, pamphlets, handouts, etc

Explanation:
Difficult to find a word for it - perhaps that's why such an odd expression is used!

It covers all those publications that you can't stand upright on a library shelf with a label on the spine showing its reference number. In other words, things that go into a library system and never re-appear as nobody knows where they are.

Grey material | Librarians who LibraryThing | LibraryThing
6 posts - 5 authors - Last post: 16 Jul
During conversations with librarians the subject of storing/classifying/searching and retrieving 'grey material' keeps cropping up! ...
www.librarything.com/topic/68650 -

Sheila Wilson
France
Local time: 02:48
Works in field
Native speaker of:

English

9 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +2

grey materials literature that is not usually attainable through conventional channels

Explanation:
An article appearing on the Internet in Information World Review, calls grey literature "the unsung hero, the foot soldier, the foundation of the building" (IWR 1996); it is An article appearing on the Internet in Information World Review, calls grey literature "the unsung hero, the foot soldier, the foundation of the building" (IWR 1996); it is literature that is not usually attainable through conventional channels

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Note added at 11 mins (2009-11-09 14:12:57 GMT)
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Grey Literature in an Open Context: From Certainty to New Challenges

Stock C. & Schöpfel J. (INIST-CNRS, France)

Abstract: 1997 grey literature was defined at Luxembourg as “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”. Distinction between commercial (white), non-commercial (grey) and other (dirty) literature seemed easy. Six years later, the landscape of scientific and technical information has radically changed. What is the place of grey literature between continuous electronic resources, open archives and new economic models of scientific literature? Is there any place left? The authors describe the evolution and relative decline of traditional grey literature from a French perspective and present some actual trends in the processing of grey literature by INIST-CNRS.

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Note added at 15 mins (2009-11-09 14:17:05 GMT)
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For an effective discussion of the different types of grey
literature it is important to have an exact definition of the group of literature. A well-known
definition was adopted outlining that grey literature consists of those publications “produced at all
levels by government, academia, business and industry, both in print and electronic formats, but
which is not controlled by commercial publishing interests, and where publishing is not the primary
business activity of the organization.”

David Hollywood
Argentina
Local time: 23:48
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 4