Staff Papers

Grey Literature in the Asia-Pacific: the National Library of Australia's Experience in Obtaining It

Paper by Amelia McKenzie, National Library Regional Officer, Asia presented to Seminar dan Lokakarya Nasional Dokumentasi dan Layanan, Informasi Literatur Kelabu, Jakarta, PDII/LIPI, 13-14 February 1996


CONTENTS


Introduction

This paper discusses the experience of the National Library of Australia's Regional Office in acquiring Indonesian 'grey literature' for the Library's collections in Canberra. I will speak first about the many definitions of 'grey literature' and consider what it may mean in the specifically Indonesian context. I will then briefly describe the methods my office uses to identify and acquire a range of Indonesian materials. Acquiring grey literature for a library collection has its costs and difficulties, of course, which often discourage efforts to build collections in these areas. I will outline these difficulties, and briefly review possible alternatives to the traditional print format. Finally, I will attempt to answer the question 'Why do it?'

Grey Literature Definition in the Asia-Pacific Context

I have been interested to read the many definitions of grey literature put forward over the years. I am not going to add any more definitions to this loose concept of 'semi-published, difficult to locate and acquire, research-level' material. However, in some ways, applying the definition 'grey' invites the assumption that this is a particular, 'fringe' category of specialised publishing activity which is an exception to the rule of an open, orderly publishing mainstream. I suggest that in Indonesia and a number of other Asia-Pacific countries, this in not the case. How much research level material produced in these countries falls exactly into this definition of difficult to locate and acquire? My belief is that for Asian and Pacific countries, a great deal of research level material is difficult to acquire for libraries both at home and abroad. How often are major conference proceedings published quickly and widely marketed and distributed? How quickly and well are scientific research results disseminated? How many government departments produce and distribute an annual report? Are parliamentary publications widely distributed? For some of the island nations of the South Pacific their national bibliographies and even parliamentary records fall into the category of grey literature, being delayed in publication and not generally available.

For Indonesia itself, even publications produced for sale can be hard to find and acquire, because it is still the case that with a few exceptions, the local book trade is not sufficiently developed to market and distribute publications outside its immediate market. Another important feature of the Indonesian book trade is the lack of special purpose library suppliers, such as exist in other countries. Most research libraries are accustomed to placing orders with a single library supplier in a country for a relatively wide range of books from many different publishers of the country. The supplier then obtains the books from the publishers, consolidates the order, ships the material and invoices the library customer. In Indonesia as in many other countries of the region, there are as many sources as there are publications, and no one library supplier who is able to deal with these publishers on behalf of overseas customers. Certainly there are library suppliers who obtain overseas-published books for Indonesian customers; but I am talking about the reverse situation.

Background to NLA's Collecting Activities

The difficulties experienced by libraries outside Indonesia in collecting Indonesian materials led the National Library of Australia to establish its Acquisitions Office in Jakarta as long ago as 1971 to obtain materials for our collection in Canberra, and also on behalf of a number of university libraries in Australia.

Since the Acquisitions Office was established, the Library's Indonesian collection has grown to about 160,000 monograph titles. It is the best Indonesian collection in Australia, and is used by both Australian researchers and Indonesians studying in Australia.

The collections include:

  • Monographs - both commercially published and published by non-commercial sources, like government offices (departmental, Biro Pusat Statistik), universities and private organisations (Yayasan)
  • Serials - journals in various subject areas, published in Jakarta and the regions, including some titles published in regional languages
  • Newspapers - we subscribe to the major Jakarta dailies and provincial dailies
  • Maps - our map collection includes topographical mapping, town plans, tourist maps and geological survey mapping
  • Films - the Library has the most comprehensive collection of Indonesian films available outside Indonesia

We acquire the above items by purchase or subscription, and by gift and exchange.

The Acquisitions Process for 'Grey Literature'

However before the office can acquire library materials we must first identify them and then locate a source of supply for them. Finding out about the publication is the first and most basic step in the acquisitions process, and perhaps the most difficult where grey literature is concerned, for by definition it does not receive coverage in the usual places where librarians learn about new books, like the publishing trade press (Berita Buku, etc.), or bibliographic listings.

Every day I and my staff scan the daily newspapers, looking out for reports on conferences, seminars, workshops, etc., which may publish proceedings or issue papers and reports. The news media is a vital source of information on these events. We also closely monitor other published sources like journals, newsletters, and accession lists. Done thoroughly, this activity can yield much information which then has to be followed up, sometimes a time-consuming activity. The first step is to pick up the phone, and use a lot of patience in dealing with perhaps many other parties before getting to the one person who knows about the publication we are seeking.

The Office's network of professional, trade and private contacts is invaluable in monitoring new or ephemeral publications. Within academic circles, for example, word of mouth is an important way of learning about a new publication or report, or a project which may generate publications. It is important for us to stay in touch with what goes on in the academic world, and make contact with researchers, project workers and librarians. Very often we have to act quickly to get a copy of a publication issued in a very limited number of copies, or only available from a single source.

In Australia, and perhaps soon in Indonesia, electronic discussion lists on Asian topics may occasionally have news of new publications. This is part of an emerging trend in electronic publication generally, to which I shall return.

Finally, an important attribute of any acquisitions librarian is a strong sense of curiosity and a willingness to ask questions; this is a very important way of finding out about new publications. The questions: 'is there a publications program?', or 'Can I have a copy for my library?' are always worth asking. Acquisitions experience often leads one to check out possible new sources of publications before any have been issued, like a new university research centres, or Yayasan, and having made the all-important first contact and got a contact name, it is simply a matter of checking back later.

Methods of Acquisition

As I have described above, telephone, letter, fax and email are all used to make contact with a publisher. Often publishers are willing to send materials by post, but there are times when letters and faxes go unanswered, and we wonder if we are dealing with the right people. In these situations personal contact is the only answer. After establishing a source of the material that is wanted, a personal visit gains the most speedy results. This applies particularly when obtaining material from outside Jakarta. In order to acquire material from the regions of Indonesia, acquisitions trips are necessary. In past years the Library has targeted Eastern Indonesia, with visits to Bali, Lombok and Maluku. On these occasions a range of local publishers are visited in person and material collected or subscriptions taken out. This is a much more successful method than using the telephone or correspondence.

Costs and Difficulties

We find that the actual cover price of the 'grey' Indonesian materials we acquire through our programme here may be very little, or sometimes nothing at all. However this does not mean that the items come to us at no cost. I think all acquisitions librarians know that 'free' materials are not really free at all. One must take account of the time and effort expended on obtaining them, and the resources required to catalogue and control them once they are in the collection.

Grey literature is resource-intensive for a library to acquire, and this is one of the main obstacles to an effective program of acquisition. Not only staff time and effort are required to identify and locate grey literature, but a high level of subject knowledge, professional skill and personal dedication have to be devoted to the task. Not all libraries have librarians with these capacities, whether in Indonesia or overseas, or if they do, they are directed to tasks other than acquisitions.

To be retrievable from a library collection, and fully used, grey literature requires good and detailed catalogue records to be made, and all cataloguers will know how bibliographically complex grey literature can be. Conference proceedings, technical reports, publications with diffuse authorship, official documents, are all difficult to catalogue. This is another cost to the library.

Preservation is often an issue for libraries, with grey literature often taking a loose-leaf format, or being simply stapled pages. Nothing deteriorates faster on the library shelf, or disappears faster, than unbound pieces which don't stand upright on the shelf..

The Electronic Alternative

I mentioned earlier that electronic discussion lists on the Internet can be a source of information on academic research and projects. We should also bear in mind the potential of electronic publishing through the Internet, and the consequences this has for the status of 'grey literature'. E-publishing creates a whole new category of research literature (I am not sure what colour it is) and poses new issues for libraries involved with grey literature. It is already the case that many documents falling into our definition of grey literature are now being published electronically rather than in paper form: that is, they are made available through the Internet and can only be retrieved through the Internet. These could be conference papers, reports of research, directories, speeches, government documents, legal materials and so on. There is a paradoxical consequence of this: firstly, the information can be more easily and cheaply disseminated than the paper copy, and quickly obtained by interested parties; but secondly, distribution is limited to those recipients with Internet access, thus leaving libraries outside this circle (many of them in less developed countries) with no access whatsoever to the material - in other words, worse off than they were under the paper copy regime, inefficient though it was.

However, the move towards information dissemination on the Internet continues, and with the development of appropriate infrastructure in these disadvantaged countries it seems certain to overcome many of the difficulties encountered with the physical distribution of grey literature. Global electronic information provision constitutes a new challenge for library and information workers.

So Why Collect Grey Literature?

Although the Internet is changing the way we handle information, paper will not be entirely replaced even in the long term. As the global, commercially inspired hyperbole about the Internet dies down, common sense tells us that some materials will never get on to the Net. Paper copy grey literature may need an added definition 'not on the Internet', but it will still exist, and possible be even harder to get, as fewer copies are printed and distributed than ever before. This means that the task of tracking down and acquiring grey literature becomes even more important.

So, given the costs and constraints, why try to include grey literature in library collections?

Firstly, even accepting quite a narrow definition of what we call grey literature, it is material of historical and sociological importance. It forms part of the intellectual heritage of a country. In the case of science and technology, it may take the form of applied research results which are of vital importance to future work. From the viewpoint of development literature, a working paper treating the current state of a research project may be the only documentation of that project.

There is also an economic perspective to acquiring grey literature. By this I do not mean the cost of acquiring it - I mean the cost of not acquiring it. A librarian from the Pacific recently wrote:

" ... a large percentage [of published and unpublished materials] still do not reach Pacific collections/libraries. The main problem, well known to Pacific librarians, is locating and obtaining Pacific materials. Pacific librarians should ensure that any solutions to this problem should be affordable and of benefit to the region. Pacific libraries should not be forced to 'buy' back information readily available elsewhere."

Every library will have its own priorities, and libraries in the Asia-Pacific region have varying resources to devote to the difficult task of acquiring 'grey' library materials. I think it is a particularly serious problem in countries which struggle to develop a viable book trade, and whose governments and universities have a poor publishing record. But I would be surprised to find any library with serious intentions to collect for research which did not have to make the effort to go out and find grey literature for their collections.


Last updated 18 June 1996

Back to the top