U.S. National Library of Medicine

Introduction to Health Services Research : A Self-Study Course

Case Description | Case Background | Case Objectives | Case Exercise

Case 4: Bioterrorism -- Community Preparedness (Page 27 of 49)

Phase Two: Finding the Information

Q11. What are the most important tools that librarians and researchers use to find the grey literature?

The grey literature is composed of documents and related resources that may not be picked up by the classic organizers of bibliographic information such as PubMed.

Public health is a discipline that tends to publish valuable resources that may not be picked up by government or commercial indexers.

A few resources are available that can direct your attention to state and local health department content, and to content that would be useful in answering this question of bioterrorism and preparedness.

One organization in particular has been collecting and cataloging the grey literature for some time. Are you aware of this entity? (Hint: It is a large medical association).

Suggested solution...