Website content that still needs to be retained for legal or business purposes, but may not be up-to-date or relevant to current UW practices, can be sequestered into a dedicated space on the website. Doing so will allow for the content to still be available to users, but in a location and manner that makes it clear that the information is out of date. Users could also choose to unpublish the page but retain it behind the scenes, visit this resource for those details.

Web materials should only be migrated to a special area for outdated content when there is remaining retention value to the materials. This would mean that the retention period has not yet been fulfilled and therefore the web content cannot be deleted quite yet. In contrast, if content is obsolete and beyond the legally approved retention period, these web materials should be promptly deleted or promptly sent to the UW Archives. Visit our common retention examples to determine which content must be first sent to the UW Archives which content could be deleted when retention has been met.

By moving web content to an Outdated Section, it would likely mean that materials are obsolete or not up to date. This could include situations like:

  • A policy that was superseded by a newer version. The newer version is on the main-part of the website but the superseded version is migrated to the Outdated Section for the remaining retention period and serves as a reference for users for what the policy used to be for a given timeperiod.
  • A blog post or news article posted by a UW office from two years ago. The posting still needs to be retained for another year but the unit does not want to bog-down their mainpage with two-year-old news articles.
  • A unit develops annual reports to federal agencies. They keep the most recent report on their mainpages, but migrate their older agency reports for their remaining retention period, since they are frequently referenced by UW staff and researchers.
  • Documentation of a specific educational event, activity, celebration or ceremony that previously occurred. The unit would like to have the information publicly available for posterity for the remaining retention period but has no need to alter or make any future changes to it.

Rules for Outdated Section

The dedicated area for outdated content must have a clear and consistent label that identifies it as outdated. By creating this outdated library section and moving content into it, users must refrain from altering or updating content after it is migrated into this dedicated space of their website. The intention is to preserve the data, as it had existed, for the purposes of recordkeeping. The content moved into this location cannot be used to participate in current UW services, programs, activities. If the original content was created before April 24, 2026, organized into the dedicated outdated section and fulfills all the criteria set forth by the DOJ rule on accessibility, units are not required to make the content accessible. Contact the UW Office of the ADA Coordinator for more details.

Remaining Retention Value

It’s important to understand that this special section of a UW website should only contain material that still has retention value according to the UW General Records Retention Schedule or applicable Departmental Retention Schedules. Units should not be using this section to store material beyond retention in this location. When digital material has reached its legally approved retention period, the materials should be promptly sent to the UW Archives or be deleted. The UW General Records Retention Schedule will distinguish when content should be sent to the UW Archives vs deleting. The ‘Outdated Section’ of the website is not a replacement for the UW Archives and does not superseded a unit’s responsibility to abide by the UW records retention schedules.