From:	NCF::HILLS        "Dr. H. Kent Hills, NSSDC, 301-286-9431" 13-JAN-1998 18:40:58.08
To:	JAMES
CC:	HILLS
Subj:	File AAREADME for nssdc ftp directory "controlled_docs"
Date: Jan 13, 1998 (Original)
Last Updated: Aug.  7, 2003
Last Reviewed: Sep. 8, 2005

This directory is a repository for digital documents that are registered in 
NSSDC's Technical Reference File (TRF). NSSDC actually has a copy of only a
small fraction of the documents in TRF. Many of the documents in TRF were
published in standard journals and we do not try to keep a copy. However, we
do try to keep an archive copy of certain documents, such as documentation or
user guides for data sets that we have in our archives. That is expected to be
the main body of digital documents archived in this directory. 

Users should not expect to come here blindly to look for documents, because 
these documents will be identified only by their TRF ID number. Some part of 
NSSDC's data and information systems should be used to identify a document of 
interest, and then it can be retrieved via WWW at the URL
ftp://nssdcftp.gsfc.nasa.gov/miscellaneous/documents/bxxxxx.txt
or 
http://nssdcftp.gsfc.nasa.gov/miscellaneous/documents/bxxxxx.txt
or by a standard anonymous FTP process from nssdcftp.gsfc.nasa.gov, by getting
"bxxxxx.txt" from the miscellaneous/documents subdirectory.

The most frequently used way to identify/locate a document is expected to be
to consult the AAREADME or similar documentation about a data set in the 
directory where the data set is named, or another more general description
or documentation file at a higher level in the directory structure, possibly 
at the mission or spacecraft level, where there might be a file entitled
something like 'Former Mission Holdings File'. 

There is an interface into the TRF file at 
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/trf-search.html
where the user may specify the document and the interface will return the ID 
number in the form B12345-000A (If the document is found). Just use lower case
"b" and the next five digits to locate the document in this directory. The 
extension is not predictable and will not be given by the TRF search interface.

NSSDC keeps a copy of various other selected documents, for a variety of
reasons, if the original document is not readily available in a standard
technical library such as the GSFC library. In an earlier era, we established
a master file of microfiche copies of documents. That file is still
maintained, but we now want to keep a document in digital format instead of on
fiche, and this present directory is the controlled place for digital
documents. However, if a document is expected to be only rarely requested, it
may be stored in another place or on offline CD-ROMs, especially if it is a
scanned image of a multi-page document, which can require a large number of
bytes of storage. 

Some files here will be available in multiple versions, such as .html, .gif, 
.txt, .msw, .rtf, etc.  Thus, if a user has Microsoft Word, the .msw version 
is preferred over the .rtf (rich text format) version. The .gif files are 
generally of one page only, so some of the contents of this directory may be 
folders, wherein reside the multiple one-page files that make up a multi-page 
document.

The files in this directory can be reached via WWW at the URL
ftp://nssdcftp.gsfc.nasa.gov/miscellaneous/documents/******.***, where ******.***
is the ID number of the document in NSSDC's Technical Reference File, 
and the extension denotes the type of file, such as txt, for, etc. 
The http protocol may also be used, instead of ftp.

For further information about this directory, please contact:

Dr. H. Kent Hills
GSFC Code 633
NSSDC / Raytheon STX
301-286-9431
hills@nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov