The publication entitled, "The Handbook of Standards. Documenting
African Collections", was published in 1996 in the framework of
AFRICOM (The ICOM programme for Africa).

It was the result of 4 years of work of professionals from seven
museums in Africa: (National Museum of Kenya - Museum of Art and
Archaeology University of Antananarivo in Madagascar - National
Museum of Mali - National Museum of Namibia - Museum of the
Bardo, Tunisia - Institute of National Museums, Dem. Rep. of
Congo - National Cultural History Museum, South Africa), together
with the CIDOC (ICOM's International Committee for Documentation).

Produced in a bilingual -French/English- version, this handbook
was welcomed by the International professional network as an
essential contribution of the African professionals to the entire
museum community.

An Arabic version of this Handbook has been published in October
1997 in the framework of the ICOM Regional Organisation for the
Arab Countries.

This "paper" publication was disseminated widely in Africa, and
the standards defined in this work have already been adopted by
several museums in Africa.

Furthermore a systematic programme of training in documentation
standards and practices for the entire continent has been
implemented. The last national training workshop was organised in
July 1998 in Nigeria and others are planned in South Africa and
Kenya.

To make this handbook known as widely as possible and in order
to be used as a reference instrument, also outside Africa,
AFRICOM decided to publish this Handbook on the ICOM Web site.
http://wwww.icom.org/afridoc/

With regard to the use of interactive resources, (ie. In the same
time, possiblility to consult the list of fields, the definition
of one field, and the list of terminoligies to be used for a
specific field) it has been discussed within the framework of
AFRICOM to present and to share its work with the international
community of museums.

We would like to thank all the persons who contributed to this
work.

We would also like to thank those who encourage us in our efforts
and the fruitful comments that we have received to improve this
Internet version.

Because we are aware of the fact that the site cannot be easily
accessed by every computer, we have taken note of this and will
make every effort to add a simpler version.

The ICOM Secretariat