Over 2,000 scholars a year consult the interviews from the oral history collection archived at Columbia University. While a large part of this collection consists of biographical memoirs, historians and researchers also have at their disposal a rich range of projects focusing on specific topics and experiences. These include a series of interviews on the student movement of the 1960s in Europe and the United States; interviews with religious, political and business leaders around institutional affiliations; and special projects on the American crafts movement and the history of philanthropy. Most recently, the Oral History Office has conducted a large project on the history of the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Through that project, the Office began a program of videotaping oral history by broadcast standards, merging the best practices of audio-taped oral history with state-of-the-art video interviewing.

Fathom is a consortium of the world's leading universities, cultural institutions, and disseminators of research, which oversees Fathom's development, policies, and educational objectives. Fathom's member institutions include Columbia University, London School of Economics and Political Science, Cambridge University Press, The British Library, The New York Public Library, The University of Chicago, University of Michigan, American Film Institute (AFI), RAND, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Victoria and Albert Museum, Science Museum (UK), and The Natural History Museum (UK).