I’ve been working on a comprehensive bibliography for divine council research (i.e., all the stuff I cover in The Unseen Realm and more) for nearly seven years. It’s something I squeeze in amid blogging, writing, podcasting, and regular work. Currently, it’s about 230 pages and 3,000 entries. It’s about three-quarters of what it ought to be. About 2,000 of the entries have corresponding PDFs that I have collected over the years. It lives online (private account) at Zotero.

Despite the snail’s pace, this is an important project that will be foundational to all my future research. I’m sort of at the point of irritation (not quite desperation) with finding the time to finish it. I estimate that it would take another 300-350 hours (that’s five more Mike years at the rate I’m going).

Consequently, I’ve decided to crowd source the project. Tonight I created a Go Fund Me campaign to raise money so I can hire someone to complete the project.

The goal is $4500, which should cover the hours needed at a decent hourly rate (could be less – the hours are just a guess). It would be a nice way for a student or stay-at-home mom (or research geek) to earn some money. Obviously, though, I have no idea if this will work — if I’ll get funding. But if 400 people gave $10, it would basically hit its mark. I hope you will all consider contributing. Anyone who contributes $50 or more will get unlimited access to the bibliography (once completed) and its PDF resources. Trust me — there’s nothing on the planet like it. If you’re into this stuff and like to read academic material, this is a trip to nerdvana.

Again, the money isn’t for me. It’s for whoever I hire to do the job. Presuming it starts to gain steam, that means I’ll be looking for someone to do the work. There’s a lot to do. It’s easy but tedious work that can be done anywhere with an internet connection. Unfortunately, the tasks that need to be done are not the sort of thing that 2-3 people can work on the same time.

I should add that, if this actually works, I have several other projects I could crowd source to hire someone.