This site and its databases evolved over time with regard to the collections owned by each institution and according to their timeliness and / or their ability to get them online. This explains why all institutions can't give access to all databases listed on the site.

Tips for searches

• The bases concern mainly DR Congo data. However, institutions have documents also dealing with subjects of other countries. Therefore, one shouldn’t be surprised if other countries than DR Congo are reported.
• Metadata are in the original language of the document. Thus, most are in French, some in English, a few in other languages. But, the hierarchical lists are in English.
• By default, results are provided for all institutes but if only one or some institutions are selected in the search form, the results will concern only these.
• Some lists are closed; meaning that terms can only be selected from the proposed list.
• The free searches are searches according to string characters but take care, metadata were written in different languages.
  For example, if you entered the French word "or" (gold in French) , you will get hits such as:
  "or", "ore body", "report" etc. if these words are included in a title)
  but you will not get "gold" (present if the title is in English).
• For "Province / Country", "Substance" and "Keywords", the "Multilingual Thesaurus of Geosciences" sponsored by ICSTI and IUGS served as baseline and, when necessary, was supplemented and adapted. The keywords are in English.

Specifically in the "Archives"

• An archive folder can contain numerous subfolders.

• The most effective searchable items are "Studied site" and / or "Natural resources". These items have been systematically recorded from the archives. The lists are closed, meaning that the terms must be selected from the proposed ones.
  Warning:
  place names can be written in different ways;
  some identical names can be found in different parts of the country;
  some names can lead to confusion (e.g. the name of the Kasai Province is also the name of the river recorded in "studied site").

• Searches by "Province / Country" can be used with some success. This item actually contains formally defined geographic entities ranging from the planet to the province. It is recommended to enter first the name of the Province. However, it should be known that provincial boundaries have changed over time and if today a deposit is in a particular province, in the past it could be located in another. Thus, one should be aware that this approach may yield also no result. The list is hierarchical, meaning that, for example, searching under the term "Congo R.D." will also find references citing one of its provinces.

• Searches by geographical coordinates "latitude / longitude" can be unreliable because they are not given in all the analysed archives and it was not possible to locate all names mentioned in the records. Search must be done in degrees, using negative values for latitudes south of the equator and meridians west of Greenwich.

• The "Free search" is only valid for the titles of folders and subfolders. Warning: titles are sometimes not very explicit and do not always contain adequate information about the record content and some titles are not in French.

Specifically in the "Library"

• The metadata of this type of collection, newly introduced in the site, must still be partially edited in the near future and probably supplemented by data from other repositories.

• Searches by "Keywords" are hierarchical, meaning that, for example, a search on "Congo D.R." will also find references citing a province, or a search on the word "mineralogy" will find also references with keywords belonging to this concept as "crystallography". Selecting terms in the two windows of this criterion provides the ability to search with the "and" search logic.

Specifically in the "Map collections"

• The metadata of this type collection, newly introduced in the site, must still be partially edited in the near future and probably supplemented by other repositories.

• The item "Sheet" is the sheet title as indicated on the map.
  Searches by "Province/Country" and "Keywords", are hierarchical, meaning that, for example, a search on "Congo D.R." will also find references citing a province, or a search on the word "mineralogy" will find also references with keywords belonging to this concept as "crystallography".
  It should also be kept in mind that the boundaries of Provinces have changed over time.

• Searches by geographical coordinates "latitude / longitude" must be done in degrees, using negative values for latitudes south of equator and meridians west of Greenwich.

• For more details on the research: : see the "User manual".