As PBCore finds itself used in a multitude of settings, databases, media information systems, and organizations, it is appropriate to “Re-Reconnoiter” with the Public Broadcasting Metadata Dictionary, particularly with regard to the American Archive Pilot Project (AAPP). At the September 2009 conference, hosted by Oregon Public Broadcasting in Portland, Oregon, PBCore was re-visited, highlighting its origins, its purpose, how it can be applied, and what could be considered better practices in the use and abuse of metadata descriptions.
The goal of the American Archive Project is stated …
… to serve as a digital repository of content produced by public television and radio, and is designed to be used by the general public, educators, broadcasters and historians. It is both preservation and a distribution system, which shares the public service orientation and sensibility of the public broadcasting system.
The AAPP is a pilot project to develop a subset of historically relevant digitized television and radio content. The goal of the project is to help CPB identify the challenges and issues encountered in the digitization of public broadcasting content as it relates to the implementation of the full Archive, which could ultimately involve scores of thousands of hours of content – both programs and back up material – reaching back as many as seven decades.
Certainly metadata plays a pivotal role. In a Re-Reconnoiter of PBCore, Paul Burrows (Media Solutions, University of Utah) recalled the genesis of the metadata dictionary and joins with the participants in exploring how its well-researched and well-defined metadata elements can be applied in describing media items and in sharing those descriptions between different information systems.
