{"id":702,"date":"2025-08-26T13:10:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T18:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/digital-accessibility\/?post_type=documentation_guides&#038;p=702"},"modified":"2025-09-12T14:23:35","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T19:23:35","slug":"deciding-what-to-archive-where","status":"publish","type":"documentation_guides","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/digital-accessibility\/documentation-guides\/archiving\/deciding-what-to-archive-where\/","title":{"rendered":"Deciding What to Archive &amp; Where"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"uwm-l-row\">\n<div class=\"uwm-l-col\">\n<p>It\u2019s important to know the difference between content labeled as \u201carchived\u201d vs. the \u201carchives\u201d in official records retention schedules. They serve different purposes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Content labeled as &#8220;archived&#8221; on 51ÁÔÆæ.edu is for information that a unit wishes to remain on the website but not updated or remediated for digital accessibility. If a unit \u201carchives\u201d content on the website as a way to achieve digital accessibility compliance, the document <strong>must<\/strong> be labeled as archived. The owner or unit of the website <strong>must<\/strong> provide a means for an individual to request an accessible version of an archived document. The owner unit is responsible for the remediation or requested accommodation. Before labeling content as archived, <a href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/digital-accessibility\/documentation-guides\/archiving\/\">be certain your content qualifies for archiving<\/a>, and make sure you how to properly <a href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/digital-accessibility\/documentation-guides\/archiving\/archived-content-notice\/\">label the content as archived<\/a>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The &#8220;archives&#8221; for the purpose of <strong>state-mandated records<\/strong> retention and disposition, on the other hand, is for content the unit does not wish to remain on the website anymore. Records that are scheduled for transfer to archives by records retention schedules should be <strong>not<\/strong> be moved to the &#8220;archive&#8221; section of the website as a way to satisfy that directive.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-related-guidance-amp-uwm-policies\">Related Guidance &amp; 51ÁÔÆæ Policies<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Most of 51ÁÔÆæ&#8217;s website content is governed by the records retention schedule ADMIN351 (External Communications). That means it must be retained for three years from date of publication. It does not necessarily need to be retained on the 51ÁÔÆæ.edu website. After three years, it should be transferred to archives, if deemed historically significant. If it&#8217;s not deemed historically significant, it can be deleted. The 51ÁÔÆæ Archives relies on the Internet Archive\u2019s Wayback Machine for most of the 51ÁÔÆæ.edu website, which preserves the content indefinitely while relieving 51ÁÔÆæ employees from the task of manually archiving their content every time they change it. Units can check their content on the Wayback Machine as needed to verify that it is crawling their content. If it is not being crawled effectively, units can contact the <a href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/libraries\/archives\/\">51ÁÔÆæ Libraries Archives<\/a> for further guidance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For information that is governed by other retention schedules, such as meeting minutes, units should first distinguish whether it is the official copy of the record that is being posted online. Only the official copy of a record needs to be retained and disposed of according to a records retention schedule. Duplicate or convenience copies posted online probably are governed by the same ADMIN351 schedule mentioned above \u2014 they have become external communications by being posted online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>If the official copy of a record is posted on the website, and the retention is &#8220;transfer to archives,&#8221; when its retention is up and it is no longer needed on the website, the unit should verify that it has been saved by the Wayback Machine. If it has not been saved there, the unit should contact the <a href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/libraries\/archives\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">51ÁÔÆæ Libraries Archives<\/a> so that it can be appraised for historical value and downloaded.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>If a unit wishes to keep a record posted on the website beyond its mandated retention period, they may unless barred from other policy. Records retention periods are minimums, not maximums. In such a case, the unit should dispose of the records according to the appropriate retention schedule after the retention is up or after they take them down from the website, whichever is later.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-additional-resources\">Additional Resources<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/digital-accessibility\/documentation-guides\/archiving\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Archiving Guidance<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/libraries\/archives\/records-management\/records-schedules\/uw-system-record-schedules\/\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/libraries\/archives\/records-management\/records-schedules\/\">About Records Retention<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/libraries\/archives\/records-management\/records-schedules\/uw-system-record-schedules\/\">Universities of Wisconsin Records Retention Schedules<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"uwm-l-col uwm-l-col--4 uwm-l-offset--1\"><div class=\"content_block\" id=\"custom_post_widget-1095\"><nav aria-label=\"Sidebar\" class=\"uwm-p-navigation-list uwm-p-navigation-list--gold-border \"><div class=\"uwm-p-navigation-list--title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/digital-accessibility\/documentation-guides\/archiving\/\">Archiving<\/a><\/div><ul><li><a class=\"current\" href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/digital-accessibility\/documentation-guides\/archiving\/deciding-what-to-archive-where\/\"><span aria-current=\"page\">Deciding What to Archive &amp; Where<\/span><\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/digital-accessibility\/documentation-guides\/archiving\/archived-content-notice\/\">Archived Content Notice<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"parent":647,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"tags":[],"documentation_guides_category":[],"class_list":["post-702","documentation_guides","type-documentation_guides","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.3 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Deciding What to Archive &amp; Where - 51ÁÔÆæ Digital Accessibility<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/digital-accessibility\/documentation-guides\/archiving\/deciding-what-to-archive-where\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Deciding What to Archive &amp; 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