Technical Subcommittee on Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)

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The Technical Subcommittee for Describing Archives: A Content Standard (TS-DACS) of the SAA Standards Committee is responsible for overseeing the timely and ongoing intellectual and technical maintenance and development of Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS). DACS is an output-neutral set of rules for describing archives, personal papers, and manuscript collections, and can be applied to all material types. DACS is compatible with ISAD(G): General International Standard Archival Description, 2nd ed. (International Congress on Archives, 1999). DACS is an SAA-approved standard; documentation on the maintenance of DACS is available through the Society of American Archivists at https://www2.archivists.org/groups/technical-subcommittee-on-describing-archives-a-content-standard-dacs/describing-archives-a-content-standard-dacs-second-

TS-DACS maintains a GitHub site to facilitate an open and transparent revision process of DACS and to document a record of all changes made to the standard. The site includes the full text of the standard and a record of all proposed and accepted revisions since March 2016. A dynamic, user-friendly version of this site is available at https://saa-ts-dacs.github.io. This site will be updated whenever changes are made to the DACS Github site.

News & Announcements

TS-DACS 2023 Annual meeting, June 26 (via Webex)

TS-DACS 2023 Annual meeting, June 26 (via Webex)

New DACS Elements Receive Unanimous Approval

SAA Council unanimously approved required elements 8.2 Rights Statement for Archival Description and 13.10 Rights Statement for Archival Authority Records.

Proposed DACS Rights Statements Receive Overwhelming Community Support

TS-DACS asked users to respond to five questions about proposed rights statements and provided space for open comments. One hundred and forty-five people responded to the questionnaire, and an overwhelming majority, 88.3% of respondents, support the adoption of the rights statement elements as required.