Last week PhilPapers, “a comprehensive index and bibliography of philosophy maintained by the community of philosophers,” sent letters to academic librarians asking for financial support to sustain their work. As a recipient of such a letter, I would like to invite philosophers, librarians, and others interested in volunteer-run digital projects like PhilPapers to talk about issues raised by the organization’s call for support. Among other topics, we can consider such questions as what is the value of such a service for scholars? for graduate students? for undergraduates? Is asking for subscriptions from libraries the most appropriate method for supporting resources like PhilPapers? Should libraries regularly factor funding for such services into collections budgets and how should libraries prioritize such funding with traditional journal and database subscriptions? All are welcome to bring their opinions and their questions to the table.
If you are unfamiliar with PhilPapers or their call for subscriptions, here are a few links to more information:
Check out PhilPapers here: philpapers.org/
See PhilPapers public notice calling for institutional subscriptions here: philpapers.org/post/8146
For an overview of the response from librarians see this post from Wayne Bivens-Tatum, philosophy librarian at Princeton University: blogs.princeton.edu/librarian/2014/04/a-last-bit-on-philpapers/
I’d be really interested to dig into this discussion also, as a manager of an institutional repository. We (IR managers) talk a lot about how to add value to depositing papers in the local IR, and I think PhilPapers illustrates some great points. Its a different angle than what you’ve proposed but the whole topic is ripe for conversation.