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