OpenSIGLE was developed by the French INIST-CNRS, with assistance from the German FIZ Karlsruhe and the Dutch Grey Literature Network Service (GreyNet).
Created in 1980 and produced from 1984 onwards by EAGLE (European Association for Grey Literature Exploitation), the database was last available through STN International and on CD-ROM via Silverplatter/Ovid Technologies, until it stopped input in 2005.
Some qualified fields were added to the metadata set used by DSpace without disturbing the OAI compliance: conference title, report number and availability statement.
The original SIGLE format distinguished between document type and literature indicator, but diverging conversion practices led to inconsistencies.
This feature has been developed a bit further by a LIS student and OpenSIGLE can now be used with interfaces in English (the main version), French, German and Italian.
Access to the full text will be facilitated through an order form for document delivery and for some records hopefully through links to the electronic version in the future.
More generally, OpenSIGLE seems to be the first migration of an important traditional bibliographic database into an OAI (Open Archives Initiative) compliant environment.
Perspectives for the future developments of the OpenSIGLE archive are: At the 12th International Conference on Grey Literature at Prague [2] in December 2010, INIST-CNRS presented a new project called OpenGrey.
OpenGrey provides new features and new content For the past 15 years, GreyNet has sought to serve researchers and authors in the field of grey literature.
To further this end, GreyNet has signed on to the OpenSIGLE repository and in so doing seeks to preserve and make openly available research results originating in the International Conference Series on Grey Literature.
GreyNet together with INIST-CNRS have designed the format for a metadata record, which encompasses standardized PDF attachments of the full-text conference preprints, PowerPoint presentations, abstracts and biographical notes.
GreyNet purchased permission last year from Emerald to make openly accessible the papers published in the GL Conference Proceedings from 1994 to 2000.
By autumn 2010, it is anticipated that all of the papers in the International Conference Series on Grey Literature will be fully accessible via the OpenSIGLE Repository.