DACS and RDA Insights and Questions from the New Archival Descriptive Standard

Abstract

Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS) is the new archival content standard published by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The publication of this forward-thinking and comprehensive response to changing information needs and technologies should be of interest to all cataloging communities. DACS raises issues about content standards for resource description that should be addressed much more broadly. The library cataloging community is in the process of an extensive revision of its cataloging codes, and new approaches in this standard appear to be embodying some of the same concepts as DACS. DACS, therefore, can be seen as a smaller and more focused implementation of some of the principles that will emerge in the new Resource Description and Access (RDA). Simultaneously, the standard can be used to examine whether taking some of these developments further would improve access to materials.