A review of the Seventh International Conference on Grey Literature (GL7)

Abstract

On December 5th and 6th 2006 the Seventh International Conference on Grey Literature (GL7) was held in Nancy/ France. GL7 focused on an en vogue topic par excellence: Open Access (OA). Defining Grey Literature as done by the conference ensuing from the proposed conference definition of Grey Literature as "Information produced on all levels of government, academics, business and industry in electronic and print formats not controlled by commercial publishing i.e. where publishing is not the primary activity of the producing body" OA to grey literature is — due to the absence of publishing houses — less affected by licence arrangements than OA to white literature. Indeed GL7 proved that issues of collecting and distributing information, visibility, long-term availability, issues of quality assurance and the development of policies remain important factors — irregardless of information being white or grey.