Preserving Digital Public Television

After seven years of researching, testing, developing, analyzing, promoting and sharing, it is time to close out the Library of Congress-funded National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program project which set out to design a model repository for public television.

In the process, the project also determined standards for metadata, explored rights issues relating to video archives, analyzed operating costs, and brought a new consciousness about the importance of digital preservation to the public television system. Saving digital public television requires a new framework that brings preservation principles into emerging all-digital production and delivery environments, storage systems, and media asset management applications. It also demands a shift in public television's approach to preservation, based on the characteristics and behavior of digital files. With a collective effort, the public broadcasting system has a unique opportunity to stand at the forefront of this new domain, and to take on this challenge on behalf of future generations.