Presenters: Serenity Sutherland (SUNY Oswego), Camden Burd (Eastern Illinois University), Kathryn Gehred (Center for Digital Editing and the Washington Papers at the University of Virginia), and Christopher Brick (Eleanor Roosevelt Papers project at the George Washington University)

The number of history podcasts has rapidly multiplied over the past decade, but documentary editors have barely scratched the surface of the medium’s potential. As many editors know, the wealth of interconnecting stories and background information available in our materials can be difficult to communicate with the audiences of our editions. Podcasts are traditionally a free medium and can reach broader, more diverse audiences with stories about the process of editing itself, as well as the content: discussions of the trials of reading that person’s handwriting, or the struggles of annotating who Mrs. Marsh was (there are only five potential people – why is it so hard?). Other ways podcasts can be useful include reporting on pedagogical practices, incorporating editions in the classroom, or as part of volunteer efforts, and teaching students to make podcasts as part of the work of editing a collection.

This roundtable considers the current role of podcasting in the practices and processes of scholarly editing, and what the community might expect in the coming years. Some “how-to” information will be presented, as well as why podcasts can be an important part of editing. Panelists will address the potential of podcasts to publicize the scholarly work of editing to each other and to a broader public, the effective use of podcasts to engage students in the classroom, and the ways podcast creation itself is a type of editing and scholarly practice.