Grey Literature

GIGA's information centre contributes to the information system on supraregional literature supply in Germany WEBIS. On behalf of and funded by the DFG (German Research Foundation) the four regional libraries collect unconventional material from the countries of their respective region.

This so called grey literature constitutes a very valuable part of the libraries' collections. This literature is only published in the countries themselves and is not available via regular bookselling trade. This includes as various material as government documents, political party publications, stats, conference proceedings, publications by international organisations, NGOs, chambers of industry and commerce, and banks as well as internet sites, hereby making difficult to access sources available for scientific research in Germany on a permanent basis.

The grey literature is documented as well in the "World Affairs Online-WAO" database by the German Information Network International Relations and Area Studies (FIV-IBLK) and is therefore researchable together with the conventional literature.
Partly bibliographies of the acquisition-travels are being rendered as pdf-files.