The AAPB is a national effort to digitally preserve and make accessible historically significant public radio and television programs created over the past 70+ years.

[8] An advisory council, which included Ken Burns, John W. Carlin, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Cokie Roberts, Stephen D. Smith, Margaret Spellings, Howard Stringer, and Jesús Salvador Treviño, recommended that a collaboration between WGBH and the Library of Congress form and operate the archive.

A rights clearance strategy will be developed to comply with legal restrictions, including copyright law and a website will provide public access to much of the collection.

[14] In 2021, the AAPB launched the “Presenting the Past" podcast series in collaboration with the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS).

The series features informed conversations with scholars, educators, industry professionals, researchers, archivists, and others about significant events, issues, and topics documented in the AAPB collections.