and the world! - alia library · and the world! amanda lawrence swinburne university...

The benefits and the costs of digital grey literature for collecting organisations

And the world!

Amanda LawrenceSwinburne University [email protected]

Grey Literature Strategies

Enhancing the value of research and information for public policy

And the world!

What is the evidence being used in public policy?

Grey literature is high profile and often in the me dia

Grey literature strategies 3

“Information produced on all levels of government, academia, business and industry in electronic and print formats not controlled by commercial publishing ie. where publishing

What is grey literature?

by commercial publishing ie. where publishing is not the primary activity of the producing body.” ICGL Luxembourg definition, 1997 - Expanded in New York, 2004

Publications, data and other resources produced by organisations rather than publishers

Australian Research Council (ARC)

Linkage Project

2012 – 2014

Grey Literature Strategies – Research Project

Partners


Project aims

Understand the role and value of grey literature in public policy

Improve the production standards of grey literature in Australia to maximise its impact and use

Improve access, retrieval and preservation of grey literature by collecting services


by collecting services

Build collaboration across all stakeholders to improve efficiency and return on investment of public interest research and information

Research plan

Online surveys of users, producers and collectors

Interviews with users, producers and collectors

Contextual analysis of policy settings and practices

Survey of collections and digital infrastructure

Media analysis of grey literature reporting


Media analysis of grey literature reporting

Engage with community on findings and solutions

Recommendations and strategies

CommercialStudent

Other

Users Producers Collectors

Survey respondents by sector

EducationGovernmnt

Commercial

Governmnt

NGO

Education

Government

NGO

Education

Commercial

Student

Other


Governmnt

NGONGO

Education

Updated: 17 March 2014

Collectors Q4: Type of Collection services respondi ng

23.5

20

20

9.6

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Academic library

Special library

Government library

Ins tu onal repository

All


9.6

7

5.2

4.3

0.9


Subject repository/clearinghouse

Other

Na onal/ State Library

Prof/Business library

Public library

Gov

Edu

NGO

Producers Q9: Kinds of materials that are produced0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Conference papers/presenta ons

Discussion/posi on papers

Reports

Briefings, guides, research reviews

Submissions

Web pages/websites

News ar cles/Media releases

Informa on sheets


Informa on sheets

Essays and ar cles

Social media etc.

Journal ar cles

Evalua ons

Data sets

Policies, procedures etc

Audio/video material

Working papers

Book chapters

Books and eBooks

Blogs

Theses

All

Gov

Edu

NGO

Com

Producers Q12: Why do organisations publish their o wn research?

0 20 40 60 80 100

To inform public policy or practice

Provide evidence-base for public policy or practice

Knowledge translation, ie making research findings …

Maximise public access to research and information

Share findings with peers

Advocacy or lobbying tool


Advocacy or lobbying tool

Raise organisation or staff profile or position

Media coverage and public debate of an issue

Meet organisation or funder requirements

Internal purposes or analysis

Flexibility i.e. of formats, content etc.

Control the timing of production and publication

Comply with regulations

Sales and other financial benefits

Users Q5: Material used occasionally or regularly f or work

86

85.3

81.1

80.2

79.1

79

68.4

67.4

59.2

0 20 40 60 80 100

Reports

Journal ar cles


Briefings, guides, reviews

News reports and ar cles

Conference papers

Books and eBooks

Data sets

Working papers/preprints


59.2

58.1

51.1

45.5

42.3

38.6

38.1

36.3

28.3

28.3

26.1

19.6

4.6

Working papers/preprints

Submissions

Evalua ons

Professional/trade magazines


Blogs

Public opinion in social media, radio etc

Technical documents

Doctoral or masters theses

Commercial and market research

Archival or heritage material

Legal and court docs

Other

Collectors Q7. Material collected90

89

88

81

77

75

70

70

69

67

60

59

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Journal ar cles

Books and eBooks

Reports

Conference papers



Professional mags/ar cles

Essays and ar cles

Policies, procedures, standards etc

Archival or heritage material


Working papers and preprints All


57

53

49

48

45

42

40

34

32

30

27

23

16

12

Working papers and preprints

Doctoral or masters theses

Book chapters

Web pages/websites

Technical documents

News reports

Data sets

Submissions

Informa on sheets, summaries

Media releases

Evalua ons

Legal and court documents


Blogs

Social media

All

Gov

Edu

NGO

Collections Q11: Estimated size of digital document collection

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

50%


0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

None Don’t know 1-999 1000-9999 10000-99,999 100,000+

COMBINED RESULTS: Materials used, produced or collected - % Important or very important

81

75

69

66

61

52

52

49

58

24

56

47

24

46

13

34

69

77

50

36

37

57

77

35

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

Reports

Journal ar cles



Data sets

Conference papers

Books and eBooks

News reports, media releases


45

45

44

30

29

17

15

15

14

14

14

12

27

17

46

10

8

10

18

3

13

3

6

10

21

40

27

34

53

10

7

23

43

53

41

4

Evalua ons

Working papers and preprints

Submissions

Technical documents

Professional mags


Social media

Legal documents


Archival material

Theses

Blogs

Users:

Producers

Collectors:

Why people use grey literature – survey comments

In my particular field, no worthwhile research could be conducted without ready access to grey literature, with significantly poorer outcomes in public policy as a result.

Grey literature is important to the work I do because it typically addresses issues relating to policy and practice - a key aspect of the work that I do. It also often has a 'big


key aspect of the work that I do. It also often has a 'big picture' focus. It is absolutely critical to the quality of the work I produce.

Grey lit provides another part of the complete information picture and without it I wouldn't want to rely on only peer reviewed material. Some of the most innovative and thought provoking material is grey lit and important in a changing world

Users Q11: How do users find out about new information? Most important sources - %

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Websites of key organisa ons

Email newsle ers/lists

Colleagues sharing informa on

Asking colleagues or experts

Alerts/RSS




Libraries

Journal subscrip ons

Subject databases/clearinghouse

Workplace intranet or info service

Ins tu onal repositories

Social media

Blogs

All

Government

Educa on

NGO

Users Q12: How often are the following services use d to access information?

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Search engine

An organisa ons's website

My own organisa on's website

Subject repository or gateway

Weekly/daily Monthly Quarterly Annually Never


Subject repository or gateway

Publisher or journal website

Library catalogue at my ins tu on

Bibliographic/cita on database


Trove or State Library Catalogue

Bibliographic web service

Producers Q21: Methods used often/always to store a nd provide access to publications -

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Upload to organisa on's website

Upload to organisa on’s repository

Deposit with an Ins tu onal repository

Print copies to Na onal/State Library as

All

Gov


Print copies to Na onal/State Library as

Deposit with subject database or

Publisher stores and provides access

Upload to partner/other organisa on’s

Print/digital copies sold to bookstores,

Upload to a commercial storage service

Gov

Edu

NGO

Com

Collectors Q16: Most important ways of promoting new resources

76.3

71.4

58.8

57.7

55.1

50.8

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

Sharing informa on directly with contacts,

Own organisa on’s website and/or

‘Whats new’ (or similar) sec on on

Alerts/RSS

Collec on email newsle ers/lists

Other email newsle ers/lists

All Gov Edu NGO


50.8

29.4

28.6

26.9

25

25

17.2

15.4

Other email newsle ers/lists

Social media e.g. Twi er, Facebook, etc

Other libraries or informa on services

Events or conferences

Blogs

Websites of key organisa ons

News reports and ar cles including print,

Media releases

The value of grey literature

Investment& Use Value

(Direct Activity Costs)

ContingentValue

(Stated Preferences)

EfficiencyImpact

(User Estimates)

User Community

UserCommunity

WiderImpacts

(Not Measured)

Producer,Collector & User

Community

Society

Centre for Strategic Economic Studies

Value Invested$11 billion pa

nationally

Use Value$33 to $43 billion

pa nationally

Willingnessto Pay

$2.4 to $7.3 billionpa nationally

Willingness to Accept

$16 billion pa nationally

User Community$6 to $18 billion

pa nationally

Range of TimeSavings

($5 billion to$17 billion pa)

Community

Society

?

Users comments on the issues they encounter accessi ng research and information needed for their work

575 written responses.

Common issues include: knowing what exists, finding relevant material, evaluating it, poor web management, getting access to journals, getting access to some grey literature, the time consuming nature of searching and sifting, the relevance and reliability of material and deadlinks.

“Finding material relevant to a subject matter if I dont know it exists (ie, I haven’t received notification on it in an update but I’m researching an


I haven’t received notification on it in an update but I’m researching an area), there is so much info through search engines that finding useful grey literature can take a lot of time.”

“There is loads of information around - difficulties relate to relevance (iekey words, dates) and veracity (assessing methodologies used, sample size, etc.)”

Time consuming, difficult to track down, links fail when returning to them, they sometimes lack important basic bibliographic detail.

Issues continued

“Issues around subscriptions to peer reviewed academic journals. They are too expensive for NGO's to maintain comprehensive subscriptions, and most researchers I know rely on their personal university enrolments to access them.”

No real issues as I work in a university library and what I can't get immediately I can get at no cost via document delivery.

Workplace library does not have very good access to relevant databases for topic areas I regularly research.


topic areas I regularly research.

“Much of it isn't published online by the funder of the researcher, so even when i know research exists I waste a lot of time working out who 'holds' it.”

“It often has to be sourced from many different repositories, which is time consuming. Often you don't even realise that there may be information available - that knowledge is either intentionally or unintentionally kept 'in house' of the organisation. We have established a regional catalogue to address this issue, but that is addressing it at only one scale of the problem.”

COMBINED: Level of concern about deadlinks

1 -2 Not very

concerned

20

30

40

50

60

70

Users

Producers


3 4- 5 Concerned/

Very concerned

0

10

20 Producers

Collectors

Producers Q23: Does your organisation have strategie s to prevent deadlinks?

Yes

26% Don’t

know

32%


No

42%

32%

Collectors Q19: Most important strategies for impro ving collections

83.5

82.3

80.5

79.2

0 20 40 60 80 100

Standard bibliographic info

Fair use copyright law

Agreed metadata standards

Collabora ve collec ng All


77

76.6

71.1

65.3

45.3

Improved so ware or

Shared metadata

Legal deposit for digital content

Interoperable systems

OAI harves ng

All

Gov

Edu

NGO

Combined: Views about copyright across all 3 survey s

COMBINED: Views on copyright and its impact

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Libraries and informa on services should be able to

store copies of print and digital material, including

grey literature, for long term access and use

Being unable to copy, store or redistribute online

Users Producers Collectors

% Agree/Strongly agree


Being unable to copy, store or redistribute online

informa on including grey literature due to copyright

law is a problem for my collec on

I am unclear whether my collec on can use, copy or

store material that is made available online

Long term access to online content is not an issue for

my collec on

Updated: 17 March 2014

Costs & benefits of alternate policies

�Explored the cost of dead links and the potential efficiency

benefits of grey literature being more readily accessible and

systematically preserved.

�Australian user respondents hit an average of 49 broken links

a year and spent an average of 19 minutes searching for and a year and spent an average of 19 minutes searching for and

trying to access the item – broken links could be costing more

than $1 billion per annum nationwide.

�User respondents suggested they could save an average of

around 15% of their working time if grey literature were more

readily accessible and systematically preserved – that could be

worth $5 billion to $17 billion per annum nationwide.


The value of grey literature

Investment& Use Value

(Direct Activity Costs)

ContingentValue

(Stated Preferences)

EfficiencyImpact

(User Estimates)

User Community

UserCommunity

WiderImpacts

(Not Measured)

Producer,Collector & User

Community

Society


Value Invested$11 billion pa

nationally

Use Value$33 to $43 billion

pa nationally

Willingnessto Pay

$2.4 to $7.3 billionpa nationally

Willingness to Accept

$16 billion pa nationally

User Community$6 to $18 billion

pa nationally

Range of TimeSavings

($5 billion to$17 billion pa)

Community

Society

?

What needs to be done…

"Clarification of the long-term value of emerging genres of digital scholarship, such as academic blogs and grey literature, is a high priority. Research and education institutions, professional societies, publishers, libraries, and

31

professional societies, publishers, libraries, and scholars all have leading roles to play in creating sustainable preservation strategies for the materials that are valuable to them.”

Blue Ribbon Taskforce on Sustainable Digital Preservation and Access, 2010 – Included members from Library of Congress, OCLC, JISC, ITHAKA, CNI, Microsoft, and various US Universities.

Recommendations

Legislate

Regulate

Collect


Collaborate

Aggregate

Educate

What should we do about collecting?

Legislate: Continue to campaign for copyright and legal deposit reform

Collect: Increase the amount of public interest digital grey literature that is catalogued, collected and publicly accessible on the live web

Collaborate across libraries, repositories and other information services to:

- Increase efficiencies of collecting digital resources

- Develop required infrastructure


- Develop required infrastructure

- Improve the user experience for more effective searching and sifting of information in a centralised way

HOW should we do this…?

What do you think?

Let me know…

Website: greylitstrategies.info

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Twitter


#greylit

@greylitstrategy

Email Amanda Lawrence

[email protected]

and the world! - alia library · and the world! amanda lawrence swinburne university...

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