In 1980, some major European scientific information centres established the “System for Information on Grey Literature in Europe” (SIGLE) to provide access to European grey literature and to improve bibliographic coverage. August 23, 2006, the Luxemburg Register of Commerce and Societies published the liquidation of the association EAGLE that produced the SIGLE database until 2005. Nevertheless, the former EAGLE member consented to preserve the European co-operation for grey literature and to transform the 1980 model into a sustainable network in the emerging environment of open access to scientific information. The first step was to archive the SIGLE records in an open and freely searchable database, conform to the OAI metadata harvesting protocol. The French INIST developed OpenSIGLE based on MIT software (DSpace) and loaded most of the SIGLE records in a simplified XML format. The communication provides an overview of the short history of SIGLE and EAGLE and describes how this unique resource was moved from a traditional host to an open access environment, giving the database a new look while preserving essential features characteristic for SIGLE.