| Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
(DACS) was
officially approved by the Society of American Archivists as an SAA standard in
2004, following review by its Standards Committee, its Technical
Subcommittee for Descriptive Standards, and by the general archival
community.
DACS is an output-neutral set of rules for
describing archives, personal papers, and manuscript collections, and can be
applied to all material types. It
is the
US
implementation of international standards
(i.e., ISAD(G) and ISAAR(CPF)) for the description of archival materials and
their creators.
As a
replacement for Archives, Personal
Papers, and Manuscripts (APPM),
DACS guides archivists and catalogers
in creating robust descriptive systems and descriptive records. DACS extends the skeletal rules for
archival materials that comprise chapter 4 of AACR2. It provides both specific rules for
describing archives and illustrates how these rules might be implemented in MARC
and EAD format. It includes
crosswalks to these and other standards.
Archivists
and catalogers can use DACS to
describe archival materials at any level of specificity, from the collection to
the item level. DACS includes an overview of archival
description (including the requirements for effective multilevel description),
outlines the elements that must be included at different levels of description,
and describes how those elements should be implemented.
In
addition, DACS provides specific
guidance in describing creators of archival material, constructing archival
authority records, and recording forms of names. DACS may also be used in conjunction
with other standards to treat aspects of description unique to specific media
types.
The 2007 edition includes an index. For those who have
the 2004 edition, the index is available below for complimentary
output.
DACS
Erratum
DACS Index
Publisher: Society of American Archivists (2007)
300 pp., Soft cover Nonmember price: $49.00
SAA Member price: $35.00
Product Code: BOOKSAA-0436 | 
