DPC

Analysing PDFs with the PyMuPDF library 

Like many heritage institutions Bodleian Libraries holds a vast collection of PDFs, created in various flavours and software over the past 20 years. These documents have come to the libraries from diverse sources – such as digitization suppliers, academic depositors, and born-digital personal archives. 

We wanted a quick and dirty way of scanning our PDF collections for particular features, tailoring these to the needs of the Libraries’ vast and diverse collections. Using the PyMuPDF library we created a small tool which helps us gather more information about the current state of our PDFs, especially but not exclusively, regarding their accessibility. While our PDF analysis tool is less detailed than validation tools (like veraPDF), using the PyMuPDF library can be a good first step for analysing PDFs and flagging potential high-level digital preservation risks.

Lightning talks, digital preservation games, an Unconference – once again the iPres conference offers exciting submission categories beyond the traditional paper, panel, poster, workshop and tutorial submissions. These Ad Hoc sessions are lightly reviewed and are not submitted through the portal, and abstracts are not published in the proceedings. Submit your ideas and bring them along to share at iPres 2022!

The DPC is pleased to offer two Career Development Fund grants for Members to attend the Archives and Records Association 2022 Conference (ARA2022) taking place 31st August – 2nd September in Chester, UK.

Each grant will cover 100% of the registration fees for full conference attendance (includes two nights accommodation). Applications are welcomed from DPC Members until the grant deadline of 07:00 UTC on 7th June 2022.