Hi Martin

Grey Lit doesn't just fulfil a perceived need but an actual one - in most cases helping to get planning permission and/or discharge a condition. Its growth has manly been since PPG16 - and that ain't just a coincidence.

The use of them to disseminate the results to other archaeologists in those terms is irrelevant (ie planners wouldn't often care if it did or didn't, if they could tick their box that its been done; developers want it so the planner can tick their box so they can get on with their development).

In that sense, the other functions you talk about are separate and irrelevant to this planning function. Theoretically, you could possibly write "We did the archaeology required by the spec" and that might be good enough for planning purposes. However, I think developers might feel conned if that's all they got - you shouldn't underestimate the value of having a physical thing as the outcome of the process a developer may have paid several thousand pounds for.

The difficulty with GL has always been that archaeologists want it to fulfill archaeological purposes, and the tension has been between pushing what that means further and how much the developers and planners think is reasonable for them to do/pay for.

PPS 5 deals with this to some extent, but we mustn't forget that GL is often a Planning document, and any standard needs to recognise that need as much as any archaeological need.

best wishes

Nick Boldrini

Historic Environment Record Officer
Durham County Council
Tel: 0191 3708840
Fax: 0191 3708897

-----Original Message-----
From: The Forum for Information Standards in Heritage (FISH) [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Martin Locock
Sent: 19 August 2010 11:50
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [FISH] HEGEL - what a standard might look like

re: van der Veen
I think that the decision about what belongs in publication, in grey
literature, and in archive has to be pragmatic one: it is interesting
that van der Veen doesn't even mention grey literature as a place where
the data sought might be found.  It seems crazy to me to suggest that
detailed information of value to maybe two or three researchers in a
decade  should  go through the process and cost of printing and
distribution in hundreds or thousands of copies.

Grey literature grew as a format to fill a perceived need
(pre-internet): it is unfortunate that we are still tied to it despite
the potential of all sorts of other mechanisms for delivering some or
all of its functions (for example why not just ask all palaoe
specialists to deposit their full data sets with ADS?).

Martin


Help protect our environment by only printing this email if absolutely necessary. The information it contains and any files transmitted with it are confidential and are only intended for the person or organisation to whom it is addressed. It may be unlawful for you to use, share or copy the information, if you are not authorised to do so. If you receive this email by mistake, please inform the person who sent it at the above address and then delete the email from your system. Durham County Council takes reasonable precautions to ensure that its emails are virus free. However, we do not accept responsibility for any losses incurred as a result of viruses we might transmit and recommend that you should use your own virus checking procedures.