Quasielastic proton knockout from<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mrow><mml:mmultiscripts><mml:mrow><mml:mi mathvariant="normal">O</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mprescripts/><mml:mrow/><mml:mrow><mml:mn>16</mml:mn></mml:mrow><mml:mrow/><mml:mrow/></mml:mmultiscripts></mml:mrow></mml:math>

The spectral function of the $^{16}\mathrm{O}$(e,e'p${)}^{15}$N reaction has been measured in quasielastic parallel kinematics. Momentum distributions are extracted for transitions to several discrete states, with emphasis on the low-lying positive parity states of $^{15}\mathrm{N}$. Spectroscopic factors and bound state wave functions are deduced from a DWIA analysis employing five different optical potentials. Coupled channels effects are investigated for the first four states of $^{15}\mathrm{N}$ and are found to be minimal. The spectroscopic results of the 1/${2}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}}$ ground state and the first 3/${2}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}}$ excited state indicate a 28%\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}5.4% reduction of the valence 1p shell strength with respect to the IPSM sum rule limit for $^{16}\mathrm{O}$. The spectroscopic strength for knockout of protons from the 2s1d shell, integrated up to a missing energy of 40 MeV, is found to be 0.269\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.033. The distribution of proton spectroscopic strength is determined from a multipole decomposition of the $^{16}\mathrm{O}$ spectral function.