University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Navigating the PDF/A standard: a case study of theses in the University of Oxford’s institutional repository

Oates, Anna Irene

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/100913

Description

Title
Navigating the PDF/A standard: a case study of theses in the University of Oxford’s institutional repository
Author(s)
Oates, Anna Irene
Issue Date
2018-04-26
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
  • McDonough, Jerome
  • Renear, Allen
Department of Study
Information Sciences
Discipline
Library & Information Science
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
M.S.
Degree Level
Thesis
Keyword(s)
  • Digital Preservation
  • Institutional Repositories
  • Electronic Theses and Dissertations
  • ISO 19005
  • PDF/A
Abstract
The PDF/A (Portable Document Format–Archival) was established by the International Organization of Standardization as the ISO 19005 standard for long-term preservation of electronic documents. While the ISO requirements of a well-formed PDF/A ensure sustainability and easy recovery of content, the standard restricts some document features from being incorporated into a well-formed PDF/A. Non-conformances to the standard are found across electronic theses and dissertations, from non-Latin glyphs used in scientific and language papers to embedded content, such as images. A further complication for achieving ISO 19005 compliance is that, despite non-conformance to the ISO standard, validation tools do not always catch non-conformance errors in documents which claim to conform to PDF/A. While PDF/A is a logical solution for long-term preservation of electronic documents, the stringent standard prevents some content which is frequently used in academic research from conforming to the ISO 19005 standard. This thesis evaluates the PDF/A and its potential use as a preservation file format for electronic theses and dissertations.
Graduation Semester
2018-05
Type of Resource
text
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/100913
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2018 Anna Oates

Owning Collections

Graduate Dissertations and Theses at Illinois PRIMARY
Graduate Theses and Dissertations at Illinois