The SAA Technical Subcommittee for Describing Archives: A Content Standard (TS-DACS) has called for comment on a revised set of principles for DACS. The committee felt that “although the current Principles contain some important ideas, they are often expressed in language that lacks clarity and precision. Additionally, we felt that several important trends in recent literature, including insights from the domains of postmodernity, feminist thought, and social justice frameworks were missing from the principles” as well as “repositions DACS as a standard that communicates professional values, and is also far more aligned with recent literature and theory regarding archival description.” (http://blog.rockarch.org/?p=1710). This led to the revision, which is meant to better guide our practice in how we serve our users.
The original principles (found in the first few pages of your blue manuals) can be found here: http://www2.archivists.org/standards/DACS/statement_of_principles
The revised principles (the ones we will be discussing) can be found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ylCCzWh5yWNuIvakme3kKTJzFaWwjA1XMKLFRQvNhtk/edit
Here are some questions to keep in mind as you are going over the old and new principles:
· How do you think that these principles compare to the current DACS principles?
· What do you think it will look like if archival description is done in accordance with these principles?
· Is there anything that you don't see in these principles that you would like to see?
· Is there anything about these principles that doesn't work well or you would like to see handled differently?
Please go over the old and revised principles before our meeting. If you would like, TS-DACS has also put together a reading list that informed their discussions on how they came to the principles, which might be helpful in discussion: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1okZyR9HjIMmVxncnLffPnOpgiF4KwXsG8ntWKfbeVaQ/edit
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