Contact: Uri Nodelman
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
editors@plato.stanford.edu
650-723-0488

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Receives
Support from the California Digital Library
STANFORD, California – February 2006 – The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP) is pleased to announce sponsorship by the California Digital Library (CDL) on behalf of the ten campuses of the University ofCalifornia. This represents a full commitment by all of the libraries in the UC system, eight of whose campuses
offer degrees in philosophy. The CDL, a separate unit of the University of California library system, supports
the assembly and creative use of the world’s scholarship and knowledge for the UC libraries and the communities they serve. Since its inception in 1997, CDL’s collections and services have grown to become one of thelargest digital libraries in the world.
John Perry, Henry Waldgrave Stuart Professor of Philosophy at Stanford University and faculty advisor to theSEP, said, “The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy has become the premier portal to philosophy on theWorld Wide Web. By offering authoritative and in-depth entries on the most important issues in contemporary
philosophy, it has become an invaluable learning and research tool for students and scholars alike.”
Edward Zalta, Principal Editor for the SEP, notes “We are very grateful to receive significant support from theCDL and the University of California. With this pledge, the SEP tops the $1 million mark in commitments fromlibraries worldwide. This cooperative effort ensures that philosophical scholarship is widely available and accessible to all. The broad-based support from institutions (even some without degrees in philosophy) demonstrates that the SEP is valuable for students and faculty of diverse subjects such as mathematics, religion, law,medicine, and science.”
Tom Sanville, spokesperson for the International Coalition of Library Consortia (ICOLC), notes that “With libraries world wide working collaboratively we are creating and preserving open access to a vast body of philosophical scholarship. This pioneering effort illuminates a unique and revolutionary approach to achieve openaccess. It’s a technique we hope the library and academic communities can utilize again.”
The SEP (http://plato.stanford.edu/) is a leader in providing open access to a comprehensive online philosophy reference work that is authoritative, peer-reviewed, and continually updated. As many as 700,000 times aweek, entries are retrieved from the SEP’s main server. Three mirror sites around the world receive an additional 35,000 entry retrievals. This many hits strongly suggests that the SEP serves not only the communityof professional philosophers but also is widely used by the public at large. The SEP’s comprehensive archival
system makes it easy for both students and scholars to cite any SEP entry in their works. Librarians, philosophers, and other supporters have joined forces to ensure that the SEP, a Scholarly Publishing and Resources
Coalition (SPARC) and ICOLC partner, remains free, widely accessible, and generally available to all. The
National Endowment for the Humanities has supported the SEP with a $500,000 matching grant that earns a$1 match from the NEH for every $3 contributed from libraries and affiliated institutions. To learn more about
how you can help, please email fundraising@plato.stanford.edu###Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

http://plato.stanford.edu/