Digitizing Grey Literature from the Antarctic Bibliography Collection

• Main Authors: Gheen, Tina, Olmsted, Sue
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: English
• Published: TextRelease 2010
• Subjects: Antarctic Bibliography Collection; National Science Foundation (NSF); Data; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://greyguiderep.isti.cnr.it/dfdownloadnew.php?ident=GreyGuide/GLP/2010-GL11-010; http://greyguiderep.isti.cnr.it/rmydownload.php?filename=GreyGuide/GLP/2010-GL11-010/2010-GL11-010.pdf; http://greyguiderep.isti.cnr.it/rmydownload.php?filename=GreyGuide/GLP/2010-GL11-010/2010-GL11-010_1.pdf

In 1962 the National Science Foundation (NSF) created a clearinghouse for Antarctic information intended to foster the global, free exchange of data and publications between scientists and researchers. With funding from NSF, the Library of Congress began assembling the Antarctic Bibliography in 1963, and full-text of the items listed in the bibliography was later captured on microfiche for preservation. The Antarctic Bibliography primarily consists of journal articles, monographs, technical reports and conference proceedings collected by the Library of Congress; however, other polar libraries contributed a generous amount of grey literature material to the bibliography as well. Only a few copies of the microfiche collection were created and distributed, so the full-text version is a rare resource preserved in an increasingly less accessible format. The goal of the Polar Digitization project at the National Science Foundation Library is to make the full-text grey literature materials from the Antarctic Bibliography microfiche collection, including unpublished works, materials from conferences that are not readily available and rare government reports, available to the public electronically on the web through digitization and cataloging. This paper addresses the challenges and importance of making the full text of grey matter from the Antarctic Bibliography accessible in digital form.