SURVEYING AND MAPPING ABSTRACTS DATABASE 
AND ITS FUNCTIONS 
Wei Qunmin, Xiong Jiangiang, Wang Zhiliang, Li Yong 
Wuhan Technical University of Surveying and Mapping 
39 Loyu Road Wuhan China 
ABSTRACT 
At present, 
hundreds of 
field among 
literature 
them. 
on surveying and mapping, 
creation of SMADB and its maintenance are 
generate the periodical publication of surveying and mapping abstracts and output to a 
are also described in this paper. 
there are many large on-line information retrieval systems in the world. These systems include 
specialized database, but there is not any specialized database in the surveying and 
mapping 
In order to ensure that the professionals of surveying and mapping can easily search for 
we created a computerized Surveying and Mapping Abstracts Database 
(SMADB), based on SIEMENS 7570-C host computer and GOLEM 
KEY WORDS: Information Retrieval System , Surveying and Mapping Abstracts Database 
On-line information retrieval 
INTRODUCTION 
There are many on-line information retrieval sys- 
tems in the world, including thousands of machine- 
read database.Literature databases cover almost all 
disciplines and profession: philosophy, politics, 
economics, laws, business management, mathematics, 
physics, chemistry, astronomy, geography, medicine, 
engineering and so on. These vast literature on the 
above disciplines are data source of retrieval 
systems. Many international on-line information 
retrieval systems are formed by means of advanced 
computer network and satellite communication tech- 
nology,such as DIALOG,ORBIT in US,ESA/IRS in Europe 
etc.. Their computer terminals are all over the 
world. Users can easily search for some scientific 
and technical literature in which they are intere- 
sted,only using their specialized data base concer- 
ned. However, there is not any specialized database 
in the surveying and mapping field among those 
retrieval systems. A vast amount of literature 
dealing with surveying and mapping disciplines are 
scattered over many different specialized database. 
If professionals of surveying and mapping want to 
find out the literature they are- interested in, from 
international on-line information retrieval system, 
they must visit many different specialized data- 
base. That not only increase the search time and 
expenditure, but, more importantly, make it very 
difficult to search for the required literature 
pertinently and entirely, Therefore, International 
Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing(ISPRS) 
4/VI discussed this problem in 1988,Tokyo. And pro- 
posed to establish a computerized information 
retrieval system of surveying and mapping by inter- 
national cooperation. Hence, we developed some new 
subroutines, based on SIEMENS 7570-C host computer 
and GOLEM software, and created SMADB. Various kinds 
of scientific and technical literature on each dis- 
cipline of surveying and mapping and on related 
discipline are stored in the database. Not only can 
it provide the professionals with conveniently on- 
line information retrieval service of literature on 
Surveying and mapping disciplines. but can automa- 
tically generate a periodical publication of SMA. 
1 FEATURES OF SMADB 
SMADB is a friendly integrative system in which the 
data is accessed in batching and information can be 
searched efficiently. Managed by the operating 
system BS2000 of computer, and making use of the 
GOLEM software and new developed subroutines, the 
database can be created, expanded and modified. Its 
features are as follows. 
107 
software of information retrieval system. The 
described. The retrieval functions of the database and how to 
floppy on IBM-PC 
(1) The database covered abstracts and additive 
information from the main periodicals and inter- 
national proceedings on surveying and mapping. By 
means of conversation, it not only can allow several 
users on the local or remote terminals to access 
the database at the same time, but can also be 
modified or expanded by the administrator in the 
meantime. 
(2) It can automatically record the process of 
search, report how many people have used the data 
base and how much time they have spent. It is easy 
to digplay or print the retrieval results. 
(3) It can automatically generate a regular text 
periodical publication of SMA. Its greatly conve- 
nient for manual retrieval. 
(4) The data in the database are stored in free 
flexible format. It is helpful to data transforma- 
tion and share. There are SMADB thesaurus and the 
list of key works (free words) in the database, so 
that users can scan them and administrator manage 
and modify the thesaurus. 
(5) The subroutines for creating, modifying sear- 
ching and expanding database, and for generating 
automatically a periodical publication of SMA are 
stand alone each other. So they can be done easily 
and flexibly. The database has multilevel password 
to avoid unauthorized users using the database. 
(6) There are two kinds of retrieval commands. One 
is formed in German and another is CCS (Common Com- 
mand Set) in English. All commands are complete 
and Simple for users to grasp. 
2 HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE OF SMADB 
2.1 
Hardware 
SIEMENS 7570-C 
CPU speed 3 millions/sec 
Main memory 16MB 
Host computer 
cache 32KB 
Disks 3024 MB 
Tape drivers 2 units 
Terminals 50 units 
Line printer 2 units 
Laser printer 1 units 
Paper printer 2 units 
2.2 Software 
BS2000 Operating system