What is UVA Create?

UVA Create is a web hosting service (Domain of One’s Own) offered by the University of Virginia Library & Reclaim Hosting to the UVA community to support teaching, learning, and research. The Do-It-Yourself (DIY) service gives account owners full control over their web environment and intellectual content through access to a cPanel dashboard and over 150 web applications and development technologies, including apps for:

  • Community Building (Wikis, calendars, chat, etc.)
  • Content Management (WordPress, Omeka, Drupal, Scalar, etc.)
  • Photos and File Storage and Display
  • Surveys and Statistics
  • and more…

Service Eligibility

UVA Create is available to all University of Virginia (UVA) students, faculty, staff and alumni with UVA Computer IDs.

While there is an annual service fee associated with each account, the UVA Library will consider special circumstances if a fee waiver is requested.

Statement of Purpose

Our mission is to support UVA students, faculty, and staff in their academic and creative pursuits by providing access to a low-cost, high-quality web hosting service tailored to educational needs. By offering an online environment where users can experiment, learn, and showcase their work, the UVA Library furthers its commitment to enhancing the educational experience through accessible technology, ensuring that all can develop and share their unique ideas.

Account Owner Responsibility

The account owner is responsible for

  • All content/data on the site, including but not limited to
  • Paying the annual service fee and any additional domain registration fees
  • Managing additional contributors’ (including non-University of Virginia users) access to applications within the account and any content they contribute. 

See below for End of Service Terms.

Acceptable Use Policy

Acceptable Use of UVA Create includes:

  • Academic websites such as course sites, group projects, grant funded projects, lab group pages, web collections, databases, and conference or event sites
  • Professional websites for academic CVs, resumes, portfolios, and personal research interests
  • Testing, experimentation, and learning of web technologies to build web literacy skills

UVA Create SHOULD NOT be used for:

  • Core University Services, Departments, Centers, Etc. – Please contact University ITS to discuss support options.
  • Long Term Storage of and Access to Research Publications or Data – The Library supports LibraData and LibraOpen for this purpose.
  • Commercial activities except for collecting UVA-related conference or event fees via Eventbrite, the University-approved vendor for event registration.
  • Activities related to harassment, discrimination or other forms of unacceptable behavior outlined by the University – See Policy resources below

Other Website and Application Development options are listed on the University ITS site.

Changes to the Service

University of Virginia Library may make changes to the UVA Create service at any time. The Library will notify account owners in advance of any significant changes that may affect their service.

Service Availability

Availability of the UVA Create service may be interrupted for maintenance and other updates as needed and is provided on an ‘as is’ and ‘as available’ basis only. Reclaim Hosting regularly upgrades applications and servers and will make every effort to minimize service interruptions.

Storage Quotas

All accounts will receive 1Gb of storage quota by default. An increase in storage quota up to 5Gb (at no additional cost) may be requested and will be considered on a case-by-case basis, however, guidance on archiving, compressing or deleting content will be given first. Sites over 5Gb will be referred to external hosting providers, such as Reclaim Hosting. All requests should be made to uvacreatesupport@virginia.edu.

If the allotted storage quota is exceeded the account will temporarily be suspended until storage size has been resolved.

Customization and Technical Support

The UVA Create environment allows a certain degree of customization by account owners. Primary account owners have File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and command line access to their accounts, meaning they can install and customize themes, plugins, modify the underlying databases, etc., within the restrictions of the overall UVA Create environment. Ongoing maintenance of customizations is the responsibility of the account owner.

Limited Technical and Administrative Support is provided by the UVA Create Library Support Team and Reclaim Hosting.

Account Suspension

UVA Create sites are not actively monitored by the UVA Library, however, if violations to the Terms of Service are brought to the Library’s attention, the UVA Library reserves the right to either suspend the account temporarily, until the violation is resolved, or permanently.

Accounts will be suspended if one or more of the following occur:

  • The account owner is no longer associated with the University and no longer retains a Computer ID. 
  • Content on the site is found to violate the UVA Create Terms of Service, University policy or local, state, or federal law. 
  •  The University elects to use the DMCA notice-and-takedown process to resolve an allegation of copyright infringement associated with the account.
  • Annual Service/Domain Fees are not paid. 
  • The allotted storage quota is exceeded.

If the account owner does not contact uvacreatesupport@virginia.edu within 30 days of suspension, the Library reserves the right to permanently delete the account.

End of Service and Retention

Whether you terminate your service or leave the University community you may backup and export your content, migrate it to another hosting solution, or choose to delete it prior to losing administrative access. Upon request uvacreatesupport@virginia.edu can provide guidance on transferring ownership, archiving or migrating content.

All account owners should review the Records Information Management website for information on Records Retention and Disposition procedures required of University Employees, https://recordsmanagement.virginia.edu/records-retention/overview, as some websites (course sites, grant funded projects, etc.) may qualify as a university record. Contact records@virginia.edu for further information and guidance.

  • If the account owner fails to contact UVA Create Support within 3 months after leaving the University, the UVA Library reserves the right to permanently delete the account.
  • If you delete your site before leaving UVA, Reclaim Hosting will retain a copy for 30 days and then permanently delete it.
  • All suspended accounts (See Account Suspension above) will be reviewed by the UVA Create Library Support team prior to permanent deletion.
  • Some sites may be selected for long-term preservation by the UVA Library.
    • If the site falls outside of university record status, the UVA Library will approach the account owner to request the site be donated. Account owner agrees to negotiate in good faith the terms of donation to the Library.
    • If the site qualifies as a university record, no donor agreement will be required prior to preservation.

Policies, Laws and Resources for Informed and Empowered Web Publishing

Account Owners should familiarize themselves with the following:

 

Terms of Service last revised 18th May 2023