Introduction based on the Guidebook by Waithiegeni Kanguru, Theresia Ng'ang'a, Mary Rigby, Els van Hemelrijck, 1995/96 and part on computer department by Tony M. Theuri, Head of Computer Services Department and co-organizer of the CIDOC conference, 1996.

The National Museums of Kenya, the host to CIDOC's 1996 annual international conference, holds a great variety of collections and developed many activities dealing with the cultural and national heritage of Kenya and the regions surrounding it. The different departments are working on computerization of information supported by a central computer department.

The National Museums of Kenya (NMK) operates under the National Museums Act, and have legislative authority governing all the archeological and palaeontological sites and monuments within the country. As an organisation, NMK falls under the Ministry of Home Affairs and National Heritage and presently encompasses a total of nine museums nation wide.

However the history of NMK's origin is very humble. Initiated in 1910 by the newly formed East Africa and Uganda Natural History Society (presently the East Africa Natural History Society) the first site was at the present Nyayo House. This group consisted mainly of colonial settlers and naturalists who needed a place to keep and preserve their collections of various specimens. The site soon proved to be too small. In 1922, a larger building was put up where the present Nairobi Serena Hotel stands.

The construction of the present Museum Hill site began in 1929 after the government set aside the land for it. It was officially opened on September 22, 1930, and named Coryndon Museum, in honour of Sir Robert Coryndon, one time governor of Kenya and a staunch supporter of the Uganda Natural History Society. With the opening of the museum, the Society moved its extensive library into the Museum complex. Part of this collection made the foundation collection for what is now the Herbarium. In the early forties and fifties, the late Dr. Louis Leakey made a public appeal for funds to enlarge the Museum's galleries. The result was the construction of a series of main galleries that were named in honour of the Nairobi community members who made their contributions for the construction. Today, one finds the Mahatma Gandhi Hall, the Aga Khan and the Churchill Gallery among others. In the early sixties the Nairobi Snake Park was built with the aim to educate the public about snakes and the common reptiles of Kenya. The Snake Parks continues to be a big attraction in the Museums.

In 1964, the Coryndon Museum changed its name to the National Museums of Kenya. Beginning from 1969, the Museum expanded its services and assets beyond Nairobi, and established museums in Kitale, Meru, Kisumu, Lamu and Fort Jesus in Mombasa. The Museum has acquired under its jurisdiction, sites and monuments which the government set aside as monuments of national heritage. Some of these include the Kariandusi and Olorgesailie prehistoric sites, the Hyrax Hill site in Nakuru, the Koobi Fora archeological site in Turkana district, Thimlich site in Nyanza, the Karen Blixen Museum in Karen and the Ololua Forest environmental and research station.
In addition, the Institute of Primate Research is also closely associated with the Museum. Each of these regional museums has its own identity and develops its own programmes, and are run under the office of the Senior Deputy Director.
In the post 1969 period, the Museums have grown and diversified. The Leakey Memorial building was opened in 1976 and houses the administration, archeology and palaeontology departments. The building also houses an auditorium (for ca. 300 people) which serves to hold different Museum functions. Also during this period, research and development programmes were developed and initiated. These included cooperation with the University of Nairobi and the Institute of African Studies, specialising in ethnography and cultural anthropology. The Education department initiated programmes for the thousands of school children who visit the Museums every year. The Casting Department sells casts of important fossil discoveries to Museums worldwide, both for study and for exhibition.

The Computer Services Department (CSD) of the National Museums of Kenya is responsible for the entire IT functionality of the Museums. The design development and implementation of various software applications for use within the Museums diverse constitution is centrally managed and controlled from this office.

Departments within the Museum co-ordinate their activities with the CSD through designated Database Administrators resident in the user departments. Together with the Database administrators systems are designed to meet the individual departments needs in various areas including collection managements systems, research databases etc.

Of paramount importance is the methodology used in the pursuit of our goals. CIDOC has provided guidelines in various fields and these guidelines have been adopted in the implementation of some of the databases, for example Archaeology and Palaeontology. The Ethnography department is using a collections management system designed from efforts emanating from the AFRICOM project. Other systems in the design stage include a database system for the Sites and Monuments team based yet again on CIDOC standards.

The CSD is also involved in the development activities of the Biodiversity Centre. The Biodiversity Database draws together various research efforts. The database serves both as a provider and collector of biodiversity information. As a source of this information, the Centre can rely on the extensive collections housed in various biological departments, and on the ongoing Fields Programmes within the Centre.
Internal training on in-house developed packages and other software packages is conducted by the CSD. To date database staff and administrative staff have attended various courses offered by the department. Co-ordination of external computer courses remains an integral part of the departments responsiblitity.

The National Museums of Kenya has responded to the needs of each department by providing IT solutions based on stand alone PC's and LANs. Presently the Museum maintains the bulk of the databases on PC's with a number of them running on Client Server LAN with a SunSparc Server. Database software used ranges from ORACLE through MS-Access to the traditional Dbase. Operating systems span the entire range and include Unix, DOS, Windows and Macintosh. There is a move towards the establishment of an institutional network that will provide internal file transfer and E-mail as well as access to internet facilities.