Grey literature repositories-5web

156 Pages·2010·2.09 MB·English

Grey Literature Repositories

Editor Petra Pejšová

Authors:
Marcus Vaska
Joachim Schöpfel
Iveta Fürstová
Radim Polčák
Jan Mach
Bohdana Frantíková
Petr Karlach
Jindřich Dolanský

Prague 2010

National Technical Library
University of Economics, Prague

Publisher: Radim Bačuvčík - VeRBuM, Zlín 2010
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CATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATION – NATIONAL LIBRARY OF THE CZECH
REPUBLIC
Grey literature repositories / editor Petra Pejšová;
authors Marcus Vaska ... [et al.]. - Zlín : VeRBuM, 2010 – 156 p.
Sub title: National Technical Library, University of Economics, Prague
ISBN 978-80-904273-6-5

08-027.571 * 004.08:930.25 * 005.591-027.542 * 024.5/.6:002.1 *
[024.5+659.2]-021.161 * 021.6 * 316.4.063.34 * 006.032/.033 * (437.3)
- grey literature
- digital archives – Czech Republic
- national programs and projects – Czech Republic -- 2001-2020
- accessibility of documents
- accessibility of information
- cooperative library systems
- international cooperation
- international standardization
- collective monographs

004 – Data processing, computer science [23].

The publication originated in the scope of the project The Digital Library of
Grey Literature – functional model and pilot realization, supported by the
Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic in the framework of programme
projects.

The text is published under the terms of the Creative Commons license:
Attribution –NonCommercial – NoDerivs 3.0 Czech Republic

Reviewed by: RNDr. Miroslav Bartošek, CSc., Ing. Petr Žabička
The work was recommended for publication by the Scientific Editorial Board
of VeRBuM publishing house.

First edition

© Petra Pejšová (ed.), Marcus Vaska, Joachim Schöpfel, Iveta Fürstová,
Radim Polčák, Jan Mach, Bohdana Frantíková, Petr Karlach, Jindřich Dolanský

© Radim Bačuvčík - VeRBuM, 2010

ISBN 978-80-904273-6-5
Grey Literature Repositories 3
Content
Preface 5
Ing. Martin Svoboda, National Technical Library
Introduction 7
PhDr. Petra Pejšová, National Technical Library
Chapter 1: Introducting Grey Literature 11
Marcus Vaska, University of Calgary, Canada
Chapter 2: Access to European Grey Literature 20
Joachim Schöpfel, Ph.D., University of Lille, France
Chapter 3: The development of grey literature in the Czech Republic 34
PhDr. Petra Pejšová, National Technical Library
Chapter 4: The NRGL Network 44
Mgr. Iveta Fürstová, National Technical Library
Chapter 5: Access to University Final Theses 56
Ing. Jan Mach, University of Economy, Prague
Chapter 6: Legal Aspects of Grey Literature 67
JUDr. Radim Polčák, Masaryk University, Faculty of Law, Brno
Chapter 7: Descriptive Data for Grey Literature 80
Bc. Bohdana Frantíková, National Technical Library
Chapter 8: Analysis and supporting documents
for the selection of software for NRGL 96
Ing. Petr Karlach
Chapter 9: NRGL Pilot Implementation 110
Ing. Jindřich Dolanský a PhDr. Petra Pejšová, National Technical Library
Chapter 10: An Audit of the National Repository
of Grey Literature using the DRAMBORA tool 126
Ing. Petr Karlach
Conclusion 137
Appendix 138
Index to abbreviations 146
Index 150
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Grey Literature Repositories 5
Preface
Grey literature, the topic of this publication, is generally considered an
important source of up-to-date scientific findings by many authorities. At the
same time, it is relatively difficult to locate and even more difficult to
access. Thus, it may be supposed that all bodies funding research and
development should eagerly support tools increasing the accessibility of grey
literature - in order to reduce the probability of “reinventing the wheel” and
to improve the efficiency of invested public assets. Five years ago, the EAGLE
(European Association for Grey Literature Exploitation) collapsed - its landing
lacked all eagle’s majesty since it could not accomplish its main function,
namely supply original documents. In response, we initiated a meeting of the
representatives of the Research and Development Council of the Czech
Republic, the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, and university
libraries. There, we presented a proposal on how to change the situation, at
least at the national level. However, it is not enough simply to design and
create a technical solution and demonstrate its usefulness to willing
institutions. Five years have elapsed since that meeting and, by means of this
book, I very much appreciate the long path that our project, the National
Repository of Grey Literature, has taken since that time. I do not believe in
the absolute efficiency of laws. However, any regulation which forces grey
literature producers to make their materials available to the public may
create a substantial amount of goodwill for the institutions. This has been
clearly demonstrated regarding dissertations and other types of university
final theses. While many countries make the results of publicly funded
research freely available, in the Czech Republic, the only information
available is that in official documents. A range of important types of grey
literature has no legislative support and, thus, their accessibility is only
dependent on the willingness of individual institutions and their awareness of
the utility of cooperation among institutions. These are likely to increase,
along with the increasing significance of this project. I deeply believe that
the success of this project will serve as a strong argument for negotiating
legislative support to reach the planned goals. Not for the fame of the
National Repository of Grey Literature, but for better exploitation of the
immense public funds invested into research and development. Hopefully,
this book will also play its part in this task. I wish for it a multitude of kind
readers.
Ing. Martin Svoboda
Director of the National Technical Library
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Grey Literature Repositories 7
Introduction
The potential of grey literature has recently attracted increasing attention by
specialists working in the areas of education, research, development and
information. This publication aims to enlighten the scientific community on
grey literature and show a possible method for building a repository of grey
literature. The scientific publication Grey Literature Repositories
(“Repozitáře šedé literatury”) is among the first publications of its kind in
either the Czech Republic or abroad. It delivers comprehensive insight into
building grey literature repositories in the Czech Republic. A similar scientific
publication by Dominic J. Farace and Joachim Schöpfel called Grey
Literature in Library and Information Studies was issued abroad in
September 2010.
The book Grey Literature Repositories provides information about the
concept of grey literature, its development, types, and producers in the
European context, with a focus on the Czech Republic. The example of the
National Repository of Grey Literature, practically implemented in the
National Technical Library, is given to illustrate how such a repository may be
built. The most important factors in the success of such project are
cooperation and legislation. The book presents the components necessary to
construct a repository from a practical viewpoint, namely analysis, selection
and implementation of software, creation of the metadata format and audit
of repository credibility.
Chapter 1 introduces the topic of grey literature, its history, types, and
development. It is also devoted to grey literature producers, who are rather
diverse compared to the producers of classical “white” literature. In the
second section, features of grey literature and its impact on the scientific
public and public at large are analyzed. Examples of grey literature in various
scientific areas are given in conclusion.
Chapter 2 describes the state of grey literature in Europe. Examples of
mandatory policies are stated, as well as strategies for acquiring grey
literature. Outstanding grey literature collections, both printed and
electronic, are presented. This chapter highlights the importance of
cooperation for the acquisition, storage and accessibility of grey literature at
all levels, from departmental to national and international collections.
The development of grey literature is summarized in Chapter 3, along with
current systems and projects involving cooperation. It depicts the role both
historically and presently of the National Technical Library in supporting the
acquisition of grey literature in the Czech Republic and participation in
international cooperation systems. As part of these activities, the project of
the National Repository of Grey Literature has been underway since 2008.
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Cooperation with producers is a key activity for repository construction.
Although grey literature is a precious source of information, it is rather
difficult to capture using classical means of collection. Contacts, partnership
and networking are of immense importance. Moreover, cooperation may
prove useful in sharing the development of standards, methodologies and
tools. This is because these activities are so demanding both for funding and
capacity that they cannot be reasonably pursued at each separate institution.
Importantly, every area of grey literature should be supervised by one
particular organization with support from others.
University final theses are such a distinctive type of grey literature, from
a legal standpoint as well, that an entire chapter is devoted to them. Access
to final theses varies widely from university to university. University
representatives have taken advantage of international experience to create
the EVSKP-MS metadata format. Cooperation between universities resulted in
construction of the National Registry of Theses in 2008.
The legal view of grey literature is of crucial significance. This book is
written with a view to Czech law, which has specific characteristics
compared to the laws of other countries. From a legal standpoint, rather
than an exact definition of grey literature, it is important to specify which
legal classification applies to particular species of grey literature. This
chapter explains basic expressions in this area, such as authors’ rights, legal
licensing, free licenses, copyright, academic work, employee work, and
exclusive licenses. In conclusion, legal recommendations for managers of
grey literature databases and options for exploiting free licenses are
debated.
Chapter 7 is entirely given over to descriptive elements, so-called metadata.
The metadata format created for the National Repository of Grey Literature
is described, its division into obligatory and specific elements, as well as
technical and administrative metadata. In addition to the description of the
metadata format, this chapter provides an overview of the basic model
metadata formats, i.e., Dublin Core, OpenSIGLE, ETD-MS, MARC21, EVSKP-
MS, and ASEP.
The selection of a software system is a key step in constructing a repository.
The software requirements for the National Repository of Grey Literature
were divided into thirteen groups and may also be used to select institutional
repositories. Since the software requirements for digital repositories are very
well covered by OpenSource applications, the analysis of the most common
systems is presented, these being CDS Invenio, DSpace, EPrints, Fedora, and
Greenstone.
The software solution developed for the pilot implementation of the National
Repository of Grey Literature is composed of two parts. The first part is
represented by CDS Invenio for the digital repository; the other part is
formed by the ESP FAST indexing and search system. The preconfigured local
Grey Literature Repositories 9
installation of CDS Invenio for grey literature collections is offered to partner
organizations to be installed over their own hardware. The major portion of
the chapter is devoted to this system. The National Repository of Grey
Literature, as well as other repositories of scientific grey literature in the
Czech Republic, may be searched using a central search interface run by the
ESP FAST system.
The final chapter describes the audit of the National Repository of Grey
Literature on the issue of its trustworthiness. This audit was run internally
with the help of the DRAMBORA tool. The chapter briefly summarizes the
audit procedure and the resulting list of risks identified. As part of the audit,
strategies are defined concerning how to manage risks, prevent them, and
potentially resolve their consequences. The DRAMBORA tool is available
online and enables continuous updating and evaluation of the audit.
On behalf of our team of authors, I wish you interesting reading.
Petra Pejšová
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