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This article sets out to explain the purpose of PDF/A, how it addresses archival and records management concerns, how PDF/A was designed to have “desirable properties of a long‐term preservation format”, and the future of PDF/A.

The contents of this article are based on the author's knowledge and experience of the subject.

It is emphasized that PDF/A must be implemented in conjunction with policies and procedures, including quality assurance procedures to ensure acceptable replication of source material.

This article will be of interest to anyone working with PDF files. Work has already begun on PDF/A Part 2 which will be based on PDF 1.6. Application notes and a listing of frequently asked questions will be made publicly available to assist developers of PDF/A applications to better understand the requirements of the file format and provide implementation guidance.

Changes in file format specifications challenge long-term preservation of digital documents. Digital archives thus often focus on specific file formats that are well suited for long-term preservation, such as the PDF/A format. Since only few customers submit PDF/A files, digital archives may consider converting submitted files to the PDF/A format. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The authors evaluated three software tools for batch conversion of common file formats to PDF/A-1b: LuraTech PDF Compressor, Adobe Acrobat XI Pro and 3-Heights^TM Document Converter by PDF Tools. The test set consisted of 80 files, with 10 files each of the eight file types JPEG, MS PowerPoint, PDF, PNG, MS Word, MS Excel, MSG and “web page.”

Batch processing was sometimes hindered by stops that required manual interference. Depending on the software tool, three to four of these stops occurred during batch processing of the 80 test files. Furthermore, the conversion tools sometimes failed to produce output files even for supported file formats: three (Adobe Pro) up to seven (LuraTech and 3-Heights^TM) PDF/A-1b files were not produced. Since Adobe Pro does not convert e-mails, a total of 213 PDF/A-1b files were produced. The faithfulness of each conversion was investigated by comparing the visual appearance of the input document with that of the produced PDF/A-1b document on a computer screen. Meticulous visual inspection revealed that the conversion to PDF/A-1b impaired the information content in 24 of the converted 213 files (11 percent). These reproducibility errors included loss of links, loss of other document content (unreadable characters, missing text, document part missing), updated fields (reflecting time and folder of conversion), vector graphics issues and spelling errors.

These results indicate that large-scale batch conversions of heterogeneous files to PDF/A-1b cause complex issues that need to be addressed for each individual file. Even with considerable efforts, some information loss seems unavoidable if large numbers of files from heterogeneous sources are migrated to the PDF/A-1b format.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce PDF/A to replace TIFF as the preferred file format for digitization of textual documents. In addition, PDF/A can be used as an open archival information system (OAIS) submission information package (SIP) container to reduce digitization and digital preservation costs.

The author first reviewed the current digitization guidelines, the OAIS model and provides on an overview of the development PDF and PDF/A as international standards. Then literature review of the uses of PDF/A is presented. The author analyzed pitfalls of TIFFs as the preferred format for digitization, and showed how to use PDF/A to code digitization SIP.

TIFF file format has been the preferred master file format by Federal Agency Digitization Guidelines Initiative digitization guidelines for the past 20 years. However, there are drawbacks of TIFF format. Literature reviews show that PDF/A has been the preferred standard for coding born-digital documents in court, government and business sectors. PDF/A-2 and PDF/A-3 are relatively new standards released after 2010. However, few understood the standards and have utilized the full potentials in digitization. The author shows that PDF/A can be used as an OAIS SIP container.

In order to delivery OAIS SIPs, current practices require a combination of files, directories and various types of metadata. The author shows that PDF/A (PDF/A-2 and/or PDF/A-3) can be a better file format for textual document digitization with coding various types of metadata in extensible metadata platform and arbitrary file/data can be coded in PDF/A-3. These features in PDF/A provide much better ways to deliver SIPs in a cost-efficient manner.

PDF/A has been recognized as the preferred standard for born-digital documents, but it has not been used as the preferred file format for digitized materials. The author recommends that: PDF/A with lossless JPX compressions as the preferred file format; and PDF/A with lossless JPX compressions along with metadata/data as the preferred OAIS SIP container. As a result, the uses reduce costs in digitization and digital preservation and also increase productivity. The author recommends to update the national and international digitization practices using PDF/A.

This paper describes the development of the veraPDF validator. The objective of veraPDF is to build an industry supported, open source validator for all parts and conformance levels of the PDF/A specification for archival PDF documents. The project is led by the Open Preservation Foundation and the PDF Association and is funded by the EU PREFORMA project.

veraPDF is designed to meet the needs of the digital preservation community and the PDF industry alike. The technology is subject to the review of and acceptance by the PDF Association’s PDF Validation Technical Working Group, including many participants of the relevant ISO working groups. Cultural heritage institutions are collecting ever-increasing volumes of digital information, which they have a mandate to preserve for the long term. However, in many cases, they need to ensure their content has been produced to the specifications of a standard file format, as well as any acceptance criteria stated in their institutional policy.

With increasing knowledge and experience of processes and policies, cultural heritage institutions are influencing the production and development of digital preservation software. The product development funded by the PREFORMA project shows how such cooperation can benefit the community as a whole.

This paper describes the value of an open source approach to developing a PDF/A validator for cultural heritage organisations.

To study the effect of Knightian uncertainty – as opposed to statistical estimation error – in the evaluation of value‐at‐risk (VaR) of financial investments. To develop methods for augmenting existing VaR estimates to account for Knightian uncertainty.

The value at risk of a financial investment is assessed as the quantile of an estimated probability distribution of the returns. Estimating a VaR from historical data entails two distinct sorts of uncertainty: probabilistic uncertainty in the estimation of a probability density function (PDF) from historical data, and non‐probabilistic Knightian info‐gaps in the future size and shape of the lower tail of the PDF. A PDF is estimated from historical data, while a VaR is used to predict future risk. Knightian uncertainty arises from the structural changes, surprises, etc., which occur in the future and therefore are not manifested in historical data. This paper concentrates entirely on Knightian uncertainty and does not consider the statistical problem of estimating a PDF. Info‐gap decision theory is used to study the robustness of a VaR to Knightian uncertainty in the distribution.

It is shown that VaRs, based on estimated PDFs, have no robustness to Knightian errors in the PDF. An info‐gap safety factor is derived that multiplies the estimated VaR in order to obtain a revised VaR with specified robustness to Knightian error in the PDF. A robustness premium is defined as a supplement to the incremental VaR for comparing portfolios.

The revised VaR and incremental VaR augment existing tools for evaluating financial risk.

Info‐gap theory, which underlies this paper, is a non‐probabilistic quantification of uncertainty that is very suitable for representing Knightian uncertainty. This enables one to assess the robustness to future surprises, as distinct from existing statistical techniques for assessing estimation error resulting from randomness of historical data.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the file formats of the digital objects stored in two of the largest open-access repositories in Spain, DDUB and TDX, and determines the implications of these formats for long-term preservation, focussing in particular on the different versions of PDF.

To be able to study the two repositories, the authors harvested all the files corresponding to every digital object and some of their associated metadata using the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) and Open Archives Initiative Object Reuse and Exchange (OAI-ORE) protocols. The file formats were analyzed with DROID software and some additional tools.

The results show that there is no alignment between the preservation policies declared by institutions, the technical tools available, and the actual stored files.

The results show that file controls currently applied to institutional repositories do not suffice to grant their stated mission of long-term preservation of scientific literature.

The purpose of this paper is to provide online access to valuable resource, i.e., rare books, institutional publications, historical reports, theses, success stories, etc. to the researchers, teachers, extension specialists, farmers and scientists working in the ICAR institutes and state agricultural universities.

Using open source software, the material in the repository was organized into institution-wise collection of documents such as books, journals, theses, reports, articles, etc. The process of digitization including scanning, cleaning, cropping, conversion to text (OCR), conversion to PDF/A, is currently being done at four different centres. So far, more than ten million pages from 19,495 documents have been digitized along with the necessary metadata.

The “KrishiKosh” is a collaborative project which envisages launching an Indian agricultural knowledge portal over the internet and sharing its research information including Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD) with the rest of the world using latest information and communication technologies.

Users are able to access any information they want, from anywhere in the world, and at any time over the internet. It also culminated in launching of an Indian agricultural knowledge portal over the internet for sharing its research information including ETD with the rest of the world using the latest information and communication technologies.

The agricultural research community will have access to the vast amount of rare and precious literature to further research and developments in agriculture and allied sectors to achieve self-sufficiency in food production.

While the population of the country is heading towards 1.23 billion, Indian agricultural scientists are engaged in increasing the food grain production to address the food security challenge. The importance of agricultural production in the context of global competition has occupied a significant place in the national development plan. It helps to provide right information, in right time at right place to increase the agriculture production.

The Indian agricultural knowledge portal over the internet for sharing its research information including ETD among agriculture policy makers, scientists, etc. using latest ICT. The portal helps to avoid duplication and to acquire more resources to the agriculture knowledge centres.

In order for students of any age to compete in a globalized, ever-changing society, it is imperative that those in leadership roles reflect the needs of the communities they serve. Part of service in any capacity requires critical self-reflection and consistent assessment of “who is missing from the table,” in addition to conversation toward progress, social justice, and the transformation of antiquated ideologies and ways of knowing. As members of minority and historically marginalized groups reflect the majority of global citizens (Colby, S. L., & Ortman, J. M. (2015). Projections of the size and composition of the U.S. population: 2014–2060. U.S. Department of Commerce: Economics and Statistics Administration. Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2015/demo/p25-1143.pdf), a paradigm shift is needed so that students, leaders, and learners can exist in an environment that supports critical and cognitive approaches to the absorption of knowledge. Utilizing Black Feminist Thought, a framework was created to not only identify racially and ethnically diverse women in educational leadership, but to provide a “roadmap” or guide for the sustainability of these leaders in the academy as well as in P-12 school systems. A Black female scholar and a Black male working in secondary and higher education provide a guide to assist those working as educators, administrators in the spaces of secondary and higher education. This narrative provides information that will provide an avenue for the exposure, experiences, and equity for Black women in education to be at the forefront of educational reform.

A social studies methods instructor and college students collaborated with an elementary teacher and fifth grade students to produce exciting cereal box dioramas of Native American cultures from different parts of the United States. The dioramas were constructed of a cereal box with a model of a historic Native American home on the front. The box was cut to open like a book to reveal the inside of the home and a ceremonial scene. The back and sides of the box featured crafts, clothing, food, transportation, or other information. Seven steps were implemented to guide this project-based learning experience. 1) Project’s goal: to engage students in active, meaningful learning, integrated with art, challenging in complexity and three-dimensional spatial reasoning, while addressing the values of Native Americans. 2) Involve students in researching and illustrating, “What were the lives of Native Americans like?” 3) Plan assessment of student research notebooks. 4) Plan assessment of final project’s required components. 5) Map how the project will unfold. 6) Respond to the challenge of making a three-dimensional model by providing examples and assistance. 7) Manage the project through collaboration between pre-service teachers and elementary students along with involvement of other school personnel.