Collecting Grey Literature – Institutional Repository versus National Aggregator

Abstract

The Czech National Library of Technology (NTK) provides two digital repositories – the National Repository of Grey Literature (NRGL) and the NTK Institutional Digital Repository (IDR). NRGL’s primary is providing access to grey literature as well as long-term archiving and preservation of grey literature from various institutions in the Czech Republic. The IDR was created for collecting and archiving of employee-generated content and other documents, including grey literature, connected with the library and its services. Our poster highlights the differences between collecting grey literature at the institutional level (through the institutional repository) and at the national level. What commonalities and differences do they have? What problems do they solve? Differences include not only overall conceptions and document types, but also methods for collecting, legal issues and standards as well as functionality and options. Thanks to our experiences in managing both types of repositories, we define general differences, obstacles, and development possibilities. Information presented here, including a mode for cooperating at the institutional or national level, is useful for all institutions planning to start collecting (not only) grey literature at the institutional or the national level even at cooperating institutional model/level