  This paper presents some of the main aspects of the software library that has
been developed for the reduction of optical and infrared images, an integral
part of the end-to-end survey system being built to support public imaging
surveys at ESO. Some of the highlights of the new library are: unbiased
estimates of the background, critical for deep IR observations; efficient and
accurate astrometric solutions, using multi-resolution techniques; automatic
identification and masking of satellite tracks; weighted co-addition of images;
creation of optical/IR mosaics, and appropriate management of multi-chip
instruments. These various elements have been integrated into a system using
XML technology for setting input parameters, driving the various processes,
producing comprehensive history logs and storing the results, binding them to
the supporting database and to the web. The system has been extensively tested
using deep images as well as images of crowded fields (e.g. globular clusters,
LMC), processing at a rate of 0.5 Mega-pixels per second using a DS20E ALPHA
computer with two processors. The goal of this presentation is to review some
of the main features of this package.
