CUL - Main Content

We are not currently accepting new partnerships as we evaluate our staffing and service levels. We thank you for your interest in working with us, and for your patience as we work to improve this space. Please check back periodically for updates. 

A podcast is more than a simple audio recording. It's an immersive, serialized form of storytelling that spans disciplines and depends upon an established set of creative and cultural practices. Come work with the Libraries to learn the conventions and the practical steps to produce scholarly work in this genre.

The Libraries provides equipment rental and training recordings for podcasters, whether or not you're an accepted participant in the Podcasting Partnership Program. Learn more on our resources page.

Explore our podcast publishing portfolio at podcasts.library.columbia.edu.

All Libraries-published podcasts are accepted into our program through a competitive applications process at the start of the fall and spring semesters. Once accepted, partners are led through an onboarding process that includes training on our publishing practices and technologies. Partners are given education on technical requirements and podcast publishing technologies, copyright and licensing, and web accessibility. To ensure the quality and inclusiveness of our content we also provide templates for guest releases, permissions forms, and transcripts and offer tutorials and further learning opportunities to help hone a variety of podcasting skills.

Each of our podcasts are provided with the following technical services:

• A branded site on which to host their podcast using the Libraries’ template
• RSS feed hosting for three years for their podcast
• Registration of their podcast with Apple iTunes, Spotify, and other major directories
• Archiving of their podcast content in Academic Commons, the University Repository
• Through archiving in Academic Commons, minting of DOIs and cataloging of content in the university’s library catalog

Any current student, faculty member, or librarian at Columbia University may apply for a podcasting partnership with the Libraries. Students must be sponsored by a faculty signatory. All new partners must attend training on our podcasting technologies as well as the proper use of copyrighted media, obtaining podcast guest consent, web accessibility, and preparing podcasts for archiving.

Podcast Content

Columbia University Libraries supports podcasting as an evolving form of scholarly communication and are seeking partnerships with podcasts that explore scholarly topics and share original research through this new medium. However, within the frame of scholarly communication, we wish to provide space for creative expression, experimentation, and growth. We suggest that a scholarly podcast may be marked by:

• The production of new knowledge or presentation of new research findings
• Analysis or conversation with other scholarly voices
• The modeling of new methodologies
• The citation of existing scholarship

We also acknowledge the liminal and valuable place that podcasts, as an aural and conversational mode, create for dialogue within, around, and about the scholarly community. Podcasts that make space for discussion and knowledge sharing and test new forms of knowledge production and distribution are most welcome in our program.  

All prospective podcasters will also be evaluated to ensure they meet the criteria of originality, scholarly merit, sustainability, and a commitment to inclusivity and equity.

If you have questions about our podcast publishing program or would like to learn more, contact the digital scholarship division at publishing@library.columbia.edu