ARKDIS at GL16, Washington D.C. 8-9th December 2014

ARKDIS represented at Sixteenth International Conference on Grey Literature: Grey Literature Lobby - Engines and Requesters for Change at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C.

The GL16 conference covered the topics 'Public Awareness of Grey Literature', 'Publishing and Licensing Grey Literature', Open Access to Research Data' and 'Managing Change in Grey Literature'. The ARKDIS doctoral student Lisa Börjesson contributed by presenting her dissertation research concerning the understanding of professional reports in archaeology. Perhaps the most relevant conference contribution supporting the ARKDIS research in this area came from the research program Environmental Information: Use and Influence at Dalhousie University (CAN). In a conference paper researchers Bertrum H. MacDonald, James D. Ross, Suzette S. Soomi, and Peter G. Wells state "Advocates of grey literature may believe this genre is undervalued or misunderstood, but lobbying for grey literature in the absence of understanding the contexts in which it is or can be used will likely fail unless information activity in those setting is understood."  (GL16 program book, ISSN 1385-2308, p. 32). The ARKDIS research regarding the settings where archaeology grey literature take shape will arguably contribute to a better understanding of the possibilities and limitations of grey literature in Swedish archaeology.