GIS & Geospatial Data Services

If you have followed the steps in the Set up your UT ArcGIS Online Account guide and successfully created a UT affiliated ArcGIS Online account, you should be aware that any content created during your time at UT and owned by your account will be lost once your connection to UT ends (through graduating, retiring, accepting a position elsewhere, etc.) and you account is subsequently deactivated if that content is not preserved prior to deactivation. Student accounts are typically automatically deactivated on the 12th day of the semester following their graduation but you should be prepared for this deactivation well in advance of this date in case for any reason this process occurs earlier than usual.

This guide details how to prepare the content you want to preserve beyond the existence of your UT ArcGIS Online account and ensure that it is migrated from your account prior to account deactivation. Please note that it is recommended that you complete the process below at least one month prior to ending your affiliation with UT to ensure sufficient time to process the ArcGIS Online content you wish to preserve. Content that is marked for preservation will be migrated from your user account to a permanent account designated for long term content management. All attempts will be made to preserve content for as long as reasonably possible, but over a time period of years older content may need to be cleared due to storage capacity constraints, data management limitations, etc.

1. Log into your UT ArcGIS Online account and go to your content tab. Identify which content you would like to have preserved before your affiliation with the university ends. Please be selective and only request preservation of content that is of long term value to the campus community, scientific community, or public.
2. Next, determine whether the content you want to preserve should be migrated to an existing permanent UT ArcGIS Online account associated with a particular lab or research group, or if it should be preserved under the standard UT ArcGIS Online data preservation account.
3. For each item that you want to preserve, fill out complete item metadata including summary, description, tags, credits, and terms of use. This information will be important for ensuring that content that is preserved will be interpretable and usable by others who would otherwise be unfamiliar with details like how, when, and why the content was created.
4. Send an email to gis@lib.utexas.edu that is structured as follows:
   
   Subject: UT ArcGIS Online Content Preservation
   
   Body: Provide your name, UT ArcGIS Online account username, and a list of all the content you want to preserve that specifies both the content name and type (e.g. best_libraries_in_texas [StoryMap], best_libraries [feature layer], texas_libraries [web map]), and instructions specifying whether or not the preserved content should be migrated to the UT ArcGIS Online account for a specific research group or the standard UT ArcGIS Online data preservation account.