Library Information Systems at the European Space Agency

S. G. Ansari, S. Loekken
Information Systems Division, European Space Agency/ESRIN
Salim.Ansari@mail.esrin.esa.it
Sveinung.Loekken@mail.esrin.esa.it
L. Marie
Technical Information and Documentation Centre, European Space Agency/ESTEC
lhs@tidc.estec.esa.nl
J. Brinkmann
Information Retrieval Service, European Space Agency/ESRIN
jbrinkmann@esrin.bitnet

Abstract The European Space Agency provides an establishment-wide coordinated library information service to the ESA centres made available by the Technical Information and Documentation Centre at ESTEC. Based on World Wide Web technology the services, developed at ESRIN and maintained by ESTEC give access to a number of library services, including an electronic version of Espace: the TIDC Newsletter, the ESA Press Releases, READ: the on-line TIDC Card Catalogue, ESA official documents archive, the TIDC Image Bank, to name but a few. In this paper, we discuss each service and the functionalities available to the user and how this same technology is being used for other services within ESA.

1. Introduction

The Technical Information and Documentation Centre at ESTEC, ESA's Space Research and Technology Centre provides a variety of coordinated services related to ESA's libraries establishment-wide. The system, developed around the World Wide Web, gives access to the ESTEC Library card catalogue, ESA's official documentation system, an electronic slide image archive, electronic journals, ESA's Press Releases and many other ESA-related services, using HTTP clients such as NCSA Mosaic, Netscape, or Lynx. All these services may be consulted at each ESA site only, since a number of these services are for ESA internal use. There exists, however, several external links through the ESA Homepage Pilot Project available from ESA's Research Institute ESRIN.

2. Features

The applications are all based on the basic idea of using the WWW as the front end to Ful/Text, a commercially available full text information retrieval system. As an example, the TIDC READ system offers WWW access to an information space of tens of thousands information items, consisting of thousands of bibliographic records and full text documents. The access methods are that of the two stage model; using classical IR functionality to find probable entry points into the information space, and then navigating hitlists, bibliographic elements, and documents from there. This is a list of some of the features supported:

A form-based interface, in which a user enters search criteria on various document related fields. This offers a standard Search and Query interface to the information space, where the user can enter boolean queries of arbitrary complexity.
The result of filling in the query form and submitting a query is a sequential hitlist, of configurable size and ordering, in which each element is represented by a configurable set of fields, such as title and date. The hitlist can be paginated in the sense that it can be retrieved in several portions. The size of the portions can be tailored directly by the end user in the interface.
A hitlist report can be generated from the hitlist, containing the full bibliographic information pertaining to a selectable subset of the hitlist in a sequential listing.
The elements of a hitlist are hyper-linked to the index card information for that particular hit. The index card contains all the relevant bibliographic information for one particular hit in the hitlist.
From the index card a user can navigate to the actual full text of a document. The document text is either converted to HTML on the fly and displayed on the screen, or can be downloaded to the users environment in the original format, which is (currently) one of Word, WP, or Ascii.
The system also provides an index-browse facility that allows the user to browse the set of searchable terms for any particular database.
There are facilities for context-sensitive on-line help, linked to strategic points in the application, as well as tutorials, feedback and questionnaire forms, etc.

Other features of the Library's services include electronic journals that are produced as browsable html files along with a downloadable PDF and Postscript versions. The whole pipeline has been implemented for the XRM Technical Notes. The TIDC's own journal ESPACE is provided on-line and contains articles, new book lists and Conference brochure information.

The TIDC Image Bank, based on the same documentation system provides access to ESA's Publications Department slides. The system allows the user to retrieve a set of images, based on keywords related to topics ranging from space missions to images of Earth and other planets. The sole usage of this service is of public relations purposes.

The TIDC is also involved in providing the ESA Homepage, available from ESRIN, with ESA's public Press Releases.

3. Architecture

The simple architecture followed in the implementation of these applications is based on a configurable and highly flexible gateway between the World Wide Web and the Ful/Text Information Retrieval System.

The WWW clients such as NCSA Mosaic, Netscape, and Lynx can all be used to access the application.The clients speak HTTP to the WWW server (HTTPD) lying under. The Common Gateway Interface is then used to communicate between the WWW server and the application, which uses Ful/Text API calls to speak directly to the Ful/Text document collections (see Figure 1).

The key point in this architecture, of course, is the CGI application, which effectively constitutes a gateway between the WWW and the Ful/Text system. This gateway is based on an API developed at ESRIN, and is currently used for a number of operational applications in and around ESA. The average time of getting the full fledged functional interface to a full text collection using this API is on the order of 1/2 day.

4. The Future

The initial year of operational applications involving the WWW has shown that this technology has a place and a function within the Information Retrieval and Document Management functional areas within the European Space Agency. It is clear that the documentation systems being built at ESRIN and used at ESTEC pave the way for more sophisticated systems in the future. To mention two of the more important development plans involving the WWW as participating technology: The Informs-2 project, designed to replace ESA-Quest, one of the worlds largest IR systems, will have WWW as one of the access routes to the system But not as the only access route). Also, ESA's Information Systems Division is developing a World Wide Web interface that will allow Europe's space industry to access Invitation to Tender documents.

It is clear that these projects will draw heavily on the results of the pilot project described above. Note, however, that second generation systems will include more advanced features, such as state emulation and HTTP-Z39.50 gateways, in order to more fully cover the requirements of IR and Documentation Management systems.