PASCAL database file description and online access on ESA/IRS

PASCAL is the machine readable version of the well known French abstract journal Bulletin Signalètique. This article describes the primary sources, the file structure and all the data elements of a record. It reviews the inverted fields and the way to search them with the QUEST Software of ESA/IRS (European Space Agency/Information Retrieval System) and outlines the software possibilities (truncation, masks, conceptual logic, online ordering of original documents, etc…). Several examples of searches are given.