[Original posting on this topic appeared in COLLDV-L no. 1726 and is
reproduced below; the results follow it.]
From: Anthony W Ferguson <ferguson_at_columbia.edu>
Dear Colleagues:
Columbia University Libraries and Columbia University Press are working
on designing a variety of electronic products aimed primarily at the
library market.
One of these products, for example, gathers sources that are available
in a variety of places but pulls them together for convenience sake:
working papers, conference proceedings, journal abstracts and tables of
contents (and full text if possible), and full text of reference and
monographic books.
My colleagues working directly on this project would like a stronger
understanding of value of including various kinds of 'gray literature'
including working papers and conference proceedings that have not
received formal peer review.
Their questions are
1. Do you collect this material? What rules do you use in doing so,
i.e., do you do it for certain fields, but not for others, only at the
request of faculty members, everything that came out from a particular
group, or only individual papers, etc.?
2. Do you catalog this material and if so, you bind it or keep it in
vertical files?
3. In the past did you collect these sorts of materials more
comprehensively than you do now? If so, why did you cut back?
If you are willing to share your feelings/experiences, regarding these
two questions please send your thoughts directly to
summerfield_at_columbia.edu
We will summarize what we receive and put it on the list. Tony
Anthony W. Ferguson
Associate University Librarian
Columbia University Libraries
Tel. 212-854-7401 (NEW NUMBER!!!!!!)
Fax. 212-222-0331
Net: ferguson_at_Columbia.edu
From: Mary Summerfield <ms128_at_columbia.edu>
Following is a brief memo and a table summarizing the responses to the
query on gray literature that Tony Ferguson submitted to this list
several weeks ago.
If you would like to have this information, but are unable to read this
file fomat [NOTE: the attachment, as no. 1748B, did not translate well in
terms of formatting so do ask Mary for a cleaner copy if you are
interested], please send me (ms128_at_columbia.edu) a note with your mailing
address and we'll put a copy in the post.
Thanks for your assistance with this effort to understand libraries' and
scholars' need for literature.
Best regards,
Mary Summerfield
Columbia University Libraries
Online Books Project
212-854-3031
Received on Wed Jun 03 1998 - 10:15:49 EDT