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The study aims to showcase the developmental perspective of “grey literature” and its importance to different sectors of the society. Furthermore, issues, challenges and possibilities concerned with the existence of “grey literature” have also been discoursed.

The study is based on the existing literature published in the field of “grey literature” which was identified with the aid of three leading indexing and abstracting services, Web of Science, SciVerse Scopus, and Google Scholar. Keywords like grey literature, black literature, The Grey Journal, The International Journal on Grey Literature, International Conference on Grey Literature, non-conventional literature, semi-published literature, System for Information on Grey Literature in Europe (SIGLE), European Association for the Exploitation of Grey Literature (EAGLE), white literature, white papers, theses and dissertations, GreyNet, grey literature-electronic media, Grey market, open access, OpenNet, open access repositories, institutional repositories, open archives, electronic theses and dissertations, institutional libraries, scholarly communication, access to knowledge, metadata standards for grey literature, metadata heterogeneity, disciplinary grey literature, etc. were searched in the select databases. Simple as well as advanced search feature of the databases were made use of. Moreover, for more recent and updated information on the topic, the “citing articles” feature of the databases was also used. The “citing articles” were consulted on the basis of their relevance with the subject content.

The study helps to understand the definitive framework and developmental perspective of “grey literature”. “Grey Literature” has emerged as a promising content for enhancing the visibility of the ideas that were earlier unexplored and least made use of “Grey literature” has also overcome the problems and issues with its existence and adoption. Technology has played a catalytic role in eradicating the issues and problems pertinent to the “grey literature” to a greater extent.

The study is based on the published literature that is indexed by only three databases, i.e. Web of Science, SciVerse Scopus and Google Scholar. Furthermore, some limited aspects of “grey literature” have been covered.

The study will be of great help to various stakeholders and policymakers to showcase the value and importance of “grey literature” for better access and exploitation. It will also be of importance to those interested to know how the literature tagged as grey changed with the passing time and how it through its unseen characteristics has evolved as an important source of information at par with the “white literature”.

The study tries to provide a demarcated and segregated outlook of the “grey literature”. It also focuses on various issues, problems and possibilities pertinent to the adoption and existence of “grey literature”.

For the last six months I have been part of a small section of D.S.I.R. which is planning the National Lending Library for Science and Technology. To begin with, the section had no name. Now we call ourselves the D.S.I.R. Lending Library Unit. Today I want to tell you a little of how we are going about the job.

Official publications at the British Library Lending Division include the published and ‘semi‐published’ documents of national and inter‐governmental departments, agencies and fringe bodies, together with local government publications. The maintenance of such a collection presents special problems and the Division has a special section to deal with these. The general principles for selection depend upon the categories being acquired. British official publications published by HMSO are received on a subscription basis. Those not published by HMSO are either selected individually, or acquired under depository arrangements with the issuing Department. British local government publications are being acquired through a firm specializing in local government documentation. Foreign official publications are either acquired on demand, or obtained through back up libraries such as the Official Publications Library of the British Library Reference Division or via international interlibrary loan. There are special arrangements to acquire the output of particular inter‐governmental organizations such as OECD, FAO, Unesco, IAEA and the Division has been a main depository library for all EC publications since 1973. Thousands of official reports from the United States are acquired through agencies such as NTIS and ERIC. Recording and shelving of official publications vary according to the type of publication eg serial, monograph, microfiche etc. Some of the material acquired is indexed in the Division's publication British Reports, Translations and Theses and selected input is forwarded for inclusion in SIGLE (System for Information on Grey Literature in Europe).

Your Conference Committee asked me to talk about national documentation systems and to be provocative. Thus any dogmatism should not be taken too seriously. I would like to start by taking stock of the problem in the second half of the twentieth century. Since the end of the last war we, as documentalists, have lived in a climate of crisis, of alarums and excursions. The cause has been commonly ascribed to the so‐called ‘flood of information’, the ‘literature explosion’. Perhaps the real revolution lies elsewhere, in the deep‐seated change in our publication potential.

ASLIB has been concerned with education in the field of special librarianship from the first conference of 1924, when the subject was among those discussed. At that date there were two qualifications available in librarianship, the Fellowship of the Library Association and the Diploma of the University of London School of Librarianship. For the Library Association's examinations it was possible to study by correspondence, at summer schools, and in a very few places at part‐time classes. The School of Librarianship offered a one‐year post‐graduate and a two‐year undergraduate full‐time course, and while some of the Diplomates entered public libraries, others went into private libraries, university and college libraries and industrial firms. Latin was a compulsory subject for entrance to the School, however, and this was a deterrent to science graduates who wished to train for the profession.

When the Research Department came into existence early in 1959, one major project was already in progress: the investigation of indexing systems, which will be described to you by Mr Cleverdon; and raw material had been collected by Dr Campbell for a survey of information/library units. We shall discuss the Survey also later in the conference.

An account is given of courses on the structure and use of scientific literature which have been run at the National Lending Library for research students, university librarians, and academic staff of universities. A meeting of university librarians has been held to discuss the problems of organizing similar courses in British universities and a brief account of this meeting is given. Appendices include programmes of the various courses and questions which were used during practical literature searching sessions.

This paper stresses the importance of grey literature to a developing country like Ghana. Present attempts at grey literature acquisition, storage and organisation are discussed. The writer is of the view that these attempts have failed due to reasons such as funding and staffing. A Centralised Documentation Centre such as a National Library is recommended for the country. Failing this, then, selected libraries should be properly organised to play this role.

Reviews the career of Dr David Wood at the British Library, and its predecessor, the National Lending Library for Science and Technology. Describes his wide range of professional involvement over 34 years. Examines the contribution he made to the world of grey literature, in particular, his role in the SIGLE initiative.