Pathways to Provenance: DACS and Creator Descriptions.

Describing Archives: A Content Standard breaks important ground for American archivists in its distinction between creator descriptions and archival material descriptions. Implementations of creator descriptions, many using Encoded Archival Context (EAC), are found internationally. DACS's optional approach of describing creators in authority records separate from, but linked to, descriptions of holdings has the potential for the "rediscovery" of provenance in U.S. repository collections. Multiple provenance (e.g., the Australian series system), postmodern theory of archives, and an increased emphasis on provenance as function are some of the reconceptualizations of archival context that compliance with DACS may inspire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]