This description of the Africa Bibliographic Centre (ABC) concept--which is still in a formative stage--provides brief summaries of the 12 components of the system, including an African lending library, bibliographic publishing, a commission on information and bibliographic systems, an African microfiche publications center, African abstracting and SDI services, an African media magazine, an African bibliographic database, the use of ultrafiche, and a distribution center of source materials from Africa. Since 1974, the ABC Newsletter has been edited by the ABC Secretariat in Dar es Salaam, which is also involved in testing the feasibility of the ABC Africa Index (the African periodicals index). (Author/JEG)