Calculations by SOLINET indicate that if the SEPIA invoices sent out over the next 8 months are paid in a timely way, the SEP will reach the intermediate goal of collecting $1.5 million in membership dues needed to secure the $500,000 in matching funds offered by the NEH under the terms of SOLINET's NEH Challenge Grant. As noted, prompt payment of SOLINET invoices will be especially crucial this year -- ensuring that we will collect the needed funds by June 2008 and meet the conditions of the grant.
The SEP now has total pledges totaling just over $1,700,000 in membership dues to SEPIA from the library community. (So there have been over $50,000 in new membership pledges since our last notice in this SPARC newsletter two months ago!) Once we add the $500,000 in NEH matching funds to this total, this means that the library community has raised just over $2,200,000 towards its overall goal of $3,000,000, leaving only $800,000 left to raise! Stanford University has raised its share of $1,125,000, towards the SEP's combined goal of $4,125,000.
We would like to draw attention to the following statistics. There are 118 institutions in the U.S. and Canada that offer a Ph.D. in Philosophy. 57 of those have pledged the full recommended amount of $15,000 in membership dues to SEPIA. 18 have pledged a smaller amount. This means 75 of the 118 Ph.D. institutions have made a pledge, leaving 43 non-contributing Ph.D. institutions. If all 43 pledged $15,000, we would have $645,000 -- which is 80.6% of the remaining goal. If, in addition, the partially contributing Ph.D. institutions were to raise their existing pledges to the full amount, we would have an additional $201,750, bringing us to $846,750. So we would like to encourage noncontributing and partially contributing institutions offering the Ph.D. in Philosophy to reevaluate the SEP.
We are happy to note that 52 of the 57 fully contributing institutions are members of SPARC. Also, 16 of the partially contributing institutions and 27 of the noncontributing institutions are SPARC members. SPARC encourages libraries to use SPARC commitment dollars to support this innovative venture.
How to Help
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy International Association (SEPIA) is the membership organization that exclusively supports the SEP. Indiana University Libraries sponsors SEPIA, and Southeastern Library Network, Inc. (SOLINET) acts as its fiscal agent. SEPIA membership dues support free and open access to the SEP.
SEPIA continues to collect membership dues from other libraries and library consortia worldwide. Learn more about SEPIA.
To register your commitment with SOLINET.
The list of libraries already committed to the project.