Sounds mysterious, doesn't it, maybe veiled in ghostly whisps of... cobwebs or something, or as if it's a publication done after the ink ran out.
Actually, 'grey lit' is a term used to describe publications that are hard to locate. They are not often available through the 'usual suspects - databases and other searchable sites. Instead, these are the occasional reports, the self-published items. Grey lit covers a lot of ground, when you think about it. Neither fish nor fowl, grey lit is nonetheless worth knowing about, if only because there's a test (ok, no there's not). But I think after you glance through this all too brief list, you'll agree with me that these documents are worth knowing about.
Here's a sampling of resources from the latest Grey Literature Report (itself, a grey lit report! - don't you love it?)
From the AARP: Prescription drugs and Medicare Part D : a report on access, satisfaction, and cost
From Active Living Research, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: Designing for active living among children - a document on childhood obesity
From the AHQR (Agency for Health Quality Research - National healthcare quality report 2007 - one of the United States' most important annual reports, this is one that's quoted pretty much everywhere.
Here's a really hot topic: Individual health insurance 2006-2007 : a comprehensive survey of premiums, availability, and benefits
Reducing poverty : what has worked, and what should come next This Canadian report finds areas for targeted intervention: "Six dossiers that require attention: education among the poor; Aboriginal poverty; the mentally ill and physically handicapped; the ghetto poor; high effective tax rates on the “near poor”; and in-work benefits such as earnings supplements."
Another very hot area: Whose data is it anyway? : expanding consumer control over personal health information
The school foods report card 2007 from the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI)
Dipartimento interato di Oncologica ed Ematologia Universita degli studi di Modena e Reggop Emilia
