European Association for Grey Literature Exploitation-Cedar Herald Index

The “European Association for Grey Literature Exploitation” (EAGLE) was created in 1985 by European scientific and technical information centres and libraries in order to produce the bibliographic database “System for Information on Grey Literature in Europe” (SIGLE).

The objective was to improve information transfer, ensure availability of research results and increase international awareness of European grey literature by making the bibliographic records as widely available as possible.

European Association for Grey Literature Exploitation

The role of the members was to identify and collect documents, to prepare associated bibliographic and subject descriptions, to provide information services and products to users, and to archive and deliver copies of the grey literature documents.

European Association for Grey Literature Exploitation

EAGLE history and economic model

From 1980 to 1985, SIGLE was funded by the Commission of the European Communities (CEC). When CEC financial support ended in 1985, the national centres formed a network for the acquisition, identification and dissemination of grey literature called EAGLE, who became the producer of the SIGLE database.

European Association for Grey Literature Exploitation

EAGLE was created as a non-profit making association registered in Luxembourg. In the beginning, membership was limited to the member countries of the European Union (former European Community) but this limitation was abolished in 1995. In the end, 15 countries participated actively, and discussions on partnership were going on with other potential members, especially in East European and North African countries.

The economic model of the association was based on initial funding by the European Commission and from 1985 onwards was based on membership fees and royalties from servers and products (CD-ROM, records). The SIGLE database was distributed by BLAISE, STN, EI and Ovid Technologies (Silverplatter) and in the early nineties by SUNIST in France. Records were also sold to vendor organizations like NERAC for specific use.

Costs were generated by the management of the association and mainly by the operating agent, whose task was to merge the national files into a unique server file every month.

EAGLE members

CEC (European Commission) Belgium (Leuven University Library) Czech Republic (National Library of Technology NTK) Denmark (Royal Danish Library) France (INIST-CNRS) Germany (TIB Hannover) Hungary (Central Library of the Budapest Technical University) Italy (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche Biblioteca Centrale) Latvia (Latvian Academic Library) Luxemburg (Bibliothèque Nationale) Netherlands (National Library of the Netherlands) Portugal (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia) Russian Federation (VNTIC) Slovakia (Slovak Centre of Scientific and Technical Information) Spain (Centro de Informacion y Documentacion Cientifica) United Kingdom (The British Library)

The EAGLE management

General Assembly: Composed of the CEC and all participating countries. Executive Board: Composed of president, executive director, two vice-presidents and the TC chair. Technical Committee (TC): Composed of member delegates, TC chair, DPC. Executive Director Auditor Treasurer EAGLE Secretariat Data Processing Centre (DPC)