This is the long-standing debate as to whether databases should be split on a subject basis or trans- 
versely, for example by technology, methodology, culture, etc. While the scattering across several hosts 
is observed to have a restraining influence on the use of databases, the choice between languages 
(English/French) and possible difficulties in the interrogation procedure are not considered to be major 
problems, probably because of the highly technical content. 
2.2 - Attitude of potential members of producer network 
2.2.1 - Interest in project 
There are two types of "members": those who have actually declared an interest and those who may be 
interested. Organizations who intend, or are starting, to computerize their documentary resources 
generally express considerable interest. This applies to several European centers. Examples from 
those who responded to the March 1988 questionnaire include the ITC, GDTA, IGN, GSTS (Strasbourg) 
and ORSTOM. These centers clearly indicate their interest in harmonization, either in terms of task- 
sharing to achieve greater synergy, or for the definition of description and indexing procedures using the 
same documentary tools. 
The Canadian RESORS remote sensing database producer is interested in greater dissemination in 
Europe, and is open to proposals that would help meet that objective. The size of the database led us to 
submit configuration C below which meets such a requirement. 
Potential members are to be determined by analyzing the existing resources of multi-disciplinary 
producers that give significant coverage to our subject. The CDST-CNRS, the French producer of 
PASCAL (available on the Questel, ESA-IRS and DIALOG hosts) is open to all forms of collaboration, 
either by downloading or by input from PASCAL. The respective configurations are considered below. 
GeoAbstracts Ltd. of Norwich (GB), the producer of GEOBASE (accessible on DIALOG), also seems a 
potentially useful member. 
2.2.2 - Possible involvement of organizations 
Involvement is naturally proportional to motivation. Several organizations have stated a willingness to 
take on technical responsibilities in the operation of the future network. Once our congress has selected 
a configuration, the national decision-makers responsible for these organizations must confirm the 
commitment at their level, in particular by allocating the human and technical resources needed to ensure 
that the chosen network operates properly. Given the present climate, namely computerization already 
in hand or planned at many centers (and resources allocated), and a desire for coordination and more 
widespread dissemination, this should be feasible. 
3 . PROPOSAL FOR AN ISPRS-IRS REMOTE SENSING AND PHOTOGRAMMETRY 
DATABASE 
The desirable technical specifications for such a database were described by J. Hothmer at the Rio 
congress in 1984. On the basis of that work, and taking account of the new environment (existing 
resources, requirements, state of information systems), certain issues can now be further defined. 
3.1 - General characteristics of database; creation and input 
3.1.1 - Types and volume of information 
The study of existing resources has shown that remote sensing articles in journals were in general 
covered (by RESORS, GEOBASE and PASCAL). However, greater coverage should be given in the 
only dedicated database, RESORS, to articles from Europe and developing countries. An initial survey 
of the journals is providing an opportunity to quantify the degree of inadequacy. 
The organizations who have declared an interest in the future network each have significant 
documentary resources, as described in § 1.2 above. The most interesting documents, excluding major 
collections of journals (which are easier to locate and scan) are, of course, low-circulation documents 
which all the database producers are interested in but few provide. This applies to the documentary 
resources mentioned above belonging to the ITC, the GDTA, the IGN, etc, i.e. organizations with large 
stocks of universities papers, technical reports, congress proceedings and grey literature in general. An 
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