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b ISPRS - IRS 
OFFICE 
Library Britisch 
of Congress E VR S ideae Library 
Washington London | 
L Document Delivery Code j | Analyst | | Analyst | | Analyst | | Analyst | 
| I Input Selection A 
s LA ISPRS - IRS | 
Microfiche Database ISPRS - IRS 
Database 
on - line HOST | User orders full 
document sthcough host Input selection to prevent users being 
submerged by too many computer outputs 
Full document delievery within ISPRS -IRS Figure ! 
Figure 5 
There are, inter alia, two different modes for implementing and maintaining the 
ISPRS -IRS Database. The first and easiest mode would be to have it done by a 
database producer in the USA or Europe on commercial grounds. As an outcome, any 
user would have to pay in dollars. Further, this solution encounters that the 
database will possibly not be established by professionals in our field which 
is an inherent disadvantage. 
Much better appears to be a second mode with financial support from one country 
for maintaining the database allowing both, online access to a host computer, 
and the free-of-charge PCA. Financial constraints of governments of many 
countries are, however, such that one country can hardly carry the burden alone. 
Therefore, a joint venture of European countries had been initiated to be 
channeled through the Commission of the European Communities (CEC). Being aware 
that other scientific disciplines would also approach governments to support 
information retrieval systems for their fields, our request to European countries 
via the CEC has been based on two reasonings : 
+ In contrast to e.g. chemistry and medicine, being commercially structured 
resp. financially self supporting, a particular feature of surveying & mapping 
is that the majority of users of an information retrieval system are govern- 
ment employees who do not dispose on funds to utilize ISPRS -IRS. Consequently, 
implementing ISPRS -IRS on commercial grounds (first mode) would require 
altering the budgets of all government organizations engaged in surveying & 
mapping. This appears to be a tedious resp. unrealistic undertaking. Instead, 
it will be more efficient if five governments share expenses for the ISPRS - 
IRS Office. 
+ Surveying & mapping, and particularly remote sensing, have quite an impact on 
developing countries. Hence, financing the ISPRS -IRS Office as a joint ven- 
ture will be a contribution for technical co-operation for development. 
The structure of financial support is outlined in figure 5. A ISPRS -IRS Office 
carries responsibility for establishing and maintaining the database, and 
responds to PCA queries. Four Analysts are required to do the work. One country 
each is expected to carry expenses for one Analyst. A fifth country carries 
92