2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The landscape of gray literature in the field of engineering has undergone significant evolution over the last two decades, driven by the proliferation of the internet and diligent efforts in digitization and cataloging. It is noteworthy that the last comprehensive investigation of gray literature in engineering was published in 2001. Gray literature encompasses a diverse array of document types, including but not limited to technical reports, patents, standards, clinical trials, dissertations, white papers, case studies, preprints, and university departmental documents. These resources are a vital part of the engineering research landscape, and scholars often lack the expertise to search for them, or even the knowledge they exist. This paper is designed to demystify the search process and facilitate the discovery and utilization of these elusive, valuable, and often under-appreciated resources, emphasizing their relevance to research and academic endeavors. This paper will focus on several gray literature formats: preprints, technical reports, conference papers and proceedings, datasets, clinical trials, syllabi, and a unique collection of nuclear reactor logbooks. These formats were chosen based on practical experience with engineering student and faculty requests at an R1 institution and as a means to highlight diverse forms of gray literature. For each of these gray literature content types, this paper seeks to provide a practical roadmap for librarians and researchers to navigate the often complex ways of finding and accessing gray literature.