Grey Literature in Engineering Sciences and Technology and its use pattern in the research institutions in India: The case study of the Karnataka State

The paper is based on the research survey undertaken during 2007-2010. The availability of GL collections and its use pattern in the Recognised Research Centres of Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) have been analysed on the basis of the responses of the librarians and the personal observation of the situation in the libraries. A detailed attempt is also made to capture the responses of the users on the use pattern of GL in these Recognized Research Centres. Here, the users constitute the faculty members (340) engaged in supervising the research programmes, and the research scholars (930) who have registered with VTU for doctoral research. The extent of the use of the 6 types of conventional form of GL : theses, dissertations, institutional publications, trade literature, technical reports and proceedings of conferences, seminars and workshops has been studied on the basis of the feedback rendered by the faculty and researchers working in the 65 engineering colleges in Karnataka which are identified for conduct of research programmes. Further, the research systematically covers every aspect involved in building strong need based GL collections useful for research in engineering science and technology. The mode of procurement of GL to the libraries, habits of the faculty in visualizing the recent releases of GL and the trends in exploiting the GL collections available in the local and regional libraries have been depicted with adequate data using tables, diagrams and charts. The research suggests for the creation of databases of GL, resource sharing and development of digital repositories of theses and proceedings of conferences and seminars, for which increased demand is noticed from the user community. Paper encompasses in its purview the aspects related to use pattern of GL collections by research supervisors and the research scholars mainly for the purposes of teaching, research and extramural activities such as delivering special lectures, preparing conference papers and articles for scholarly journals. The study also captures the training needs of the working librarians and information scientists for building GL collections, comprehensively and systematically and also to facilitate access to GL in the network environment. The need of orientation and training of the user community, covering the faculty and researchers has also been projected expecting better access and use of GL collections in the Research Centres of the VTU.Includes: Conference preprint, Powerpoint presentation, Abstract and Biographical notes, Pratt student commentaryXAInternationa