It was founded by two members of the university philosophy department, Ramona Cormier and Richard Lineback, who recognized a need to improve access to the growing body of philosophical literature in English and other languages.

Work on the development of this project at PDC was supported for several years by grants to Bowling Green State University from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

In 1974, it began publishing a series of research bibliographies to provide systematic overviews of the primary and secondary work of major philosophers.

PDC currently produces over a hundred print and electronic publications in philosophy and neighboring disciplines, and provides online access to complete sets of journals and series in several languages.

[10] PDC continued to develop other publications and services, with a focus on the publishing and membership management needs of professional associations and scholarly societies.

The scope of this work increased over time, with notable projects such as the Proceedings of the Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy and the major publications of the American Philosophical Association.

[8] In 2001 PDC relocated its operations and most of its staff to Charlottesville, Virginia as a consequence of increasing technical demands of this expanding range of services.

In 2009, PDC launched its eCollection of journals and series from several countries, with online access for institutions, single individuals, and membership organizations.

This database contains information on university philosophy departments and programs, professional societies, research centers, journals, and publishers in approximately 130 countries.