There are three related metadata records. Sample Record #04 describes a photograph of a folk artist. This metadata record uses the pbcoreRelation container to link the artist to photographs of two of his actual works (see Sample Records #05 and #06). Likewise, the records for the actual works use the pbcoreRelation container to link back to the artist's photograph (Sample Record #04) and the related companion art work.

The pbcoreDescription container is repeated in each record in order to distinguish information about an individual art work (abstract) and anecdotal insights made about the work or artist by an art historian (anecdotal).

These records are part of a larger collection. The metadata schema in use by the cataloging institution employs other metadata fields to identify collection-level information. These are found as extensions to PBCore.

This Content Class contains metadata elements describing the actual intellectual content of a media asset or resource.

There are 9 containers and a total of 16 elements in the Intellectual Content grouping.

This Content Class contains metadata elements related to the creation, creators, usage, permissions, constraints, and use obligations associated with a media asset or resource.

There are 4 containers and a total of 7 elements in the Intellectual Property grouping.

This Content Class contains metadata elements that identify the nature of the media asset as it exists in some form or format in the physical world or digitally.

There is a single parent container, with 3 sub-containers, and a total of 28 elements in the Instantiation & Formats grouping. For each new instantiation or format for a media asset/title, the entire parent container can be repeated.

This Content Class contains additional descriptions that have been crafted by organizations outside of the PBCore Project. These extensions fulfill the metadata requirements for these outside groups as they identify and describe their own types of media with specialized, custom terminologies unique to their needs and community requirements.

There is a single container and a total of 2 elements as a starter kit for the addition of metadata extensions to the PBCore.