Have you heard of PBCore?

It’s a metadata standard originally designed for public broadcasting materials. Today, however, many media archives and broadcasters make use of PBCore.

Open Vault uses PBCore to describe our archival materials. If you’ve ever used a library catalog you’ve probably encountered MARC without even knowing it. On Open Vault you’re encountering PBCore. It helps us structure our data in a consistent way and allows us to share it via the web!

If you’re interested in learning more about PBCore, check out PBCore.org. The WGBH Interactive and Media Library and Archives teams are currently working on both a re-design of the PBCore site as well as an upgrade to the standard itself.

If you’re a PBCore user or have suggestions for improving PBCore please submit your change requests and watch for PBCore 2.0 coming in November, 2010.