New DACS Elements Receive Unanimous Approval

TS-DACS is thrilled to announce that SAA Council unanimously approved their proposal for two new required elements for DACS. 

 Chapter 8 (Description Control) will now include required element 8.2, Rights Statement for Archival Description. Chapter 13 (Authority Record Management) will include a new required element 13.10, Rights Statement for Archival Authority Records. Chapters 1 and 9 will also be updated to reflect the new required elements. 

TS-DACS will begin work to add the new elements to the user-friendly version available here and work with SAA Publications on updating the PDF publication. Additionally, the TS will begin developing educational resources designed to assist DACS users with implementation of these elements. 

 DACS has a versioning system to help archives keep track of their compliance when changes are made to the standard. Since these changes require the use of new elements, repositories who are not yet prepared to make these updates are encouraged to state compliance with a previous version of DACS. Learn more here. 

 The TS would like to thank Alston Coburn (East Carolina University) and Patrick Galligan (Rockefeller Archives Center) for their perseverance and work on this project. We would also like to thank those who responded to requests for feedback about the proposal. 

 A more detailed description of the new elements may be viewed here.