I'm a PhD Candidate in Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Emory, but I wanted to enter the conversation re: feminist philosophy archives given my experience working with the Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library at Emory since 2009. 

I'm so excited to see a discussion about a feminist philosophy archive emerging! I still remember Joan previewing some of the feminist philosophy interviews in 2005 or 2006, and I've been tracking the project ever since! 

To the question of archives: I have some insights I'd like to share based on my knowledge (at the same time, I don't want my comments to quash any excitement or movement toward creating a feminist philosophy archive). 

My first thought is that it takes an incredible amount of time, financial support, and energy to process and maintain an archive that is open to the public. A digital archive is one way that gets us past many of these issues, but it also raises many others in relation to copyright, costs of digitizing materials, website maintenance, preservation-quality storage of hard copies, etc. 

I think a wise step would be to seek out existing repositories (archives, special collections, etc.) that already have the resources and long-term institutional backing necessary to process materials, preserve them, and provide public access--including, at the most optimal, travel funding for researchers. 

State archives are not usually a good bet for ensuring prompt processing. While state archives may accept feminist philosophy archives (depending on their collecting interests), I doubt that feminist philosophy papers would be a processing priority for many states. At a very basic level, processing priority refers to the status papers receive; papers that are not high in the processing queue can linger for years until the repository has time to process them. And during this time, the repository has the right to not let the public know it holds the paper. (Some repositories have clauses that let the public know they hold a set of papers, but the repository is still able to restrain access to the papers until they are processed--it's all up to the repository.)

The best way to find such repositories is to look for repositories that already have feminist philosophy and allied materials--they will be most interested in adding more materials since it builds a collecting area for the repository. (Also, this benefits researchers in that they don't have fund travel to 8 different geographical locations, they can go to 1 or 2 for their research). I think universities and established, independent repositories (i.e. The Lesbian Herstory Archives) are most likely to be good homes for feminist philosophy archives. 

The repository that comes first to my mind and seems like the strongest fit to me for feminist philosophy papers is the Feminist Theory Archives at Brown. They have instructions on their website for donor contacts, etc.  www.brown.edu/Departments/Pembroke_Center/archives/FeministTheoryPapers.html

When looking for places to donate or sell one's papers, it's worth keeping in mind that no matter how materials make their way into a repository, the donor/seller can detail and maintain rights and restrictions in the deed of gift. This is important leverage, especially if there are sensitive materials. 

I think it's critical to look for repositories that offer as much access as possible to researchers (I'm defining researcher as anyone who's interested). For example, some universities require that researchers be associated with another university or have a letter of introduction in order to even look at their papers. Many repositories do not require university affiliation, but do require state identification (a "show-me-your-papers" archive). Other repositories do not require state IDs, but require other forms of identification. It's a question of access, and one worth knowing before donating. 

Ok, I am rambling! I am so glad this discussion arose and I look forward to seeing where it goes!  

Kelly