5.5 The ERSAP Input/Validation Processing
System
The requirements to process the documents and
input the data directly from various centres and
organisations to the European Aerospace Database
led ESA-IRS to develop the EAD Input and
Validation System, based on the EAD
bibliographic standards.
The modularity of the system, used for creating
not only EAD records but also other databases
produced internally by the European Space
Agency, allows the adaptation to changes in the
document processing standards.
The system consists of two separate packages,
the "local" and the "central" functions. The
local entry/validation software which can be
very easily adapted to the ERSAP bibliographic
standards performs three major functions:
= the data entry to ERSAP standards
- the local . validation of records'
contents against authority files
(thesaurus, corporate authors, etc..)
and tables
= services procedures, such as:
the system parametrisation,
enabling the continual updating
and improvement of the ERSAP
bibliographic standards
the transfer of data to the
ESA-IRS host (via floppy disk or
electronically)
The central software operating at ESA-IRS will
manage all the data received from various local
input centres or database producers. The most
important features of this software are:
= the reception of data transferred from
remote input centres
= the preparation and formatting of data
transferred to the ERSAP Retrieval
tem
= the identification and elimination of
potential duplicates
= the generation of statistical reports
of acquisitions
In order to perform the final quality assurance
and control, the central system disposes of
functionalities identical to those of the local
level and can be considered at the
administration level, which has full control
over all entered data at any time of operations.
It is intended to make available the local ERSAP
software to the organisations who will process
their data directly to the ERSAP database as
well as keep a local database. The system runs
on a standard personal computer, it is advisable
to run the system on PS/2 or AT machines,
although it could theoretically also be run on
XT models. At least 20 megabytes of free disk
space and 512 kilobytes of memory must be
available.
6 ACQUISITIONS AND CURRENT ERSAP
: INFORMATION FLOW
The ERSAP database documents acquisition and
gathering procedures, adopted by the European
350
Space Agency, follow the traditional General
Acquisition System aiming at the conclusion of
bilateral agreements between the European Space
Agency and the European organisations releasing
the documents for entry into the database.
Modelled on the European Aerospace Database
agreements, these contracts will require the
organisations to release their documents to the
database.
Copyright issues will also be dealt with, in
order to create at ESRIN a new centralised
archive of all documents referred to in the
database. Indeed ESRIN has currently the
responsibility to acquire, process, archive and
distribute a great deal of information related
particularly to earth observation. This includes
bibliographic, full text, diagrammatic and
acquired earth observation data.
From the time of the initial selection of
documents, the contributing organisation will,
in particular, be requested to determine the
copyright status of its documents. If some
permission will be proved difficult to obtain
for a legal reproduction of the document by the
Agency, the document will not be integrated into
the ERSAP central archives for further
distribution to third parties. It will only be
processed as citation in the database.
Upon reception of a document from various remote
sensing sources, the initial processing will
include:
= the determination of the copyright
status and right of legal
reproducibility
= the special handling when appropriate
E allocation of a native ERSAP number
The next processing step will include:
= the descriptive cataloguing according
to the ERSAP unified standards. These
standards will be very similar to the
international EAD/NASA standards
= the production of the French and
English summaries
= the indexing or allocation of
controlled vocabulary keywords from
the common EAD/NASA thesaurus (or
successors)
- the loading of the records in the
ERSAP Information Retrieval System or
database
The documents that the Agency is authorised to
archive and distribute will also be microfiched
using ANSI standards (98 frames with a reduction
factor of 24:1) and the resulting master
microfiche will be routed to its corresponding
archives.
The text of the original documents will be
ordered online from the reference retrieved as a
search result by the ERSAP end-user.
Communications between the user and the ESA-IRS
host will be handled via online ordering status,
where an order will be either "waiting",
"accepted", or "rejected"; the latter case
applying to a document for which the permission
to reproduce and disseminate was not granted by
the supplying organisation.
The document reproduced either in microfiche or
blowback paper copy according to the end-user