The “Grey” Ghetto: Key Issues Related to Public Policy Research Literature

“Grey”, “ephemeral”, “fugitive”, and “non‐trade” are terms used to describe the unique publications issued by American private public policy research organizations. These research organizations often publish the best and brightest analytical thinking about public problem‐solving and wield considerable influence in the process of national policymaking. Information professionals, responsible for social science collections, have for decades agonized over issues related to acquiring, cataloging, and organizing this unorthodox literature. Librarians have traditionally viewed this body of literature as too difficult and laborious to locate and inferior by library standards to sit on open shelves among the general collection.