Grey Literature Acquisition and Management: Challenges in Academic Libraries in India

Grey Literature is materials and research produced by organization outside of the Traditional commercial or Academic publishing and distribution channels. Common grey literature publication types include reports working papers, government documents and white papers. Grey literature may be made available to the public or distributed privately within organizations or groups, and may lack a systematic means or distribution and collection. There has been increase in the academic and scholarly value placed in grey literature value placed in grey literature as an original and primary source of information. Also the rapid increase of grey literature in virtually all subject areas is becoming a challenge and gradually giving librarians great concern. This paper therefore, examines the nature of grey literature, how grey materials are acquired, and the challenges academic libraries face in the acquisition and management of grey literature. The paper recommends that acquisition of grey materials must be demand - driven, Academic Libraries should contribute to grey literature depositors, create more cataloguing records, and make those available more complete.