 Have you ever heard the term gray literature? Gray literature is informally published information intended for a limited audience. These works are not published commercially in journals and are not usually available in library databases. Producers of gray literature include all levels of government, academic and research institutions, businesses, and non-governmental organizations such as professional associations. Examples of gray literature include statistical reports, practice guidelines, health policy documents, conference presentations, newsletters, technical specifications, and unpublished research manuscripts. So why do we need gray literature? Gray literature provides answers to questions not generally found in books, magazines, newspapers, academic journals, or other mainstream publishing channels. It can be the best source of up-to-date research on many topics in medical and health policy. Why is finding gray literature a challenge? Basic information such as author, publication date, or publishing body may not be easy to recognize. Also, gray literature is often not well indexed by any search tool. No library comprehensively collects and indexes gray literature, and web search engines often can't access the document repositories holding gray literature. Both of these factors mean that searching for gray literature can be frustrating, both in terms of the time it takes and the number of places you have to look. Selected gray literature documents can be found in the Canadian Health Research Collection, the Canadian Institute for Health Information, and the Gray Literature Report in Public Health. Got questions? You can ask a member of the library staff. Thanks for watching.