University of Kwazulu-Natal

Subject Guides Government Information Data Rescue Home

Bonisiwe Shabane
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subject guides government information data rescue home

This LibGuide is a living document that is continually being edited and improved. Much of the original content was derived from a Google document titled “Data Rescue Efforts,” which circulated in February 2020. The collaborative group behind that document has since grown into the Data Rescue Project. We gratefully acknowledge their foundational work and the ongoing, collective efforts of the data preservation community. Below is a concise guide to help you locate US federal government data that may have been removed or redacted following the Presidential Executive Orders that went into effect on January 31, 2025. Please note that this guide only covers how to find removed information.

For current or active government data, you should use Data.gov, which remains the best resource for discovering existing federal data. Before you begin searching for rescued data, it's a good idea to double-check that the information is truly gone from official sources: If you have confirmed that the data or information is missing, move on to archival resources. The Internet Archive Wayback Machine is the largest web archive, capturing snapshots of websites across the internet over time. It allows you to view websites as they appeared on specific dates in the past. This guide is a resource for those concerned about access to publicly available government data given the transition between presidential administrations, and the rapidly changing landscape of mediated information.

The current situation (February, 2025) is in flux, so along with many other academic institutions in the library and archives community the Gordon Library at WPI is monitoring the situation. This guide will be updated as we identify additional resources. Would you like to suggest resources that would be helpful to add to this guide? Please let one of the librarians listed below know and they can add it to this guide, or email gr-reslib@wpi.edu. Thank you for helping us maintain access to this critical research and work! Many different terms to capture and store information are used throughout these resources.

Each term has distinct purpose and definition*: *Zhao, Jimmy. (2022, November 4). What are the major differences between snapshot, dump, mirror, backup, archive, and checkpoint?. Stackoverflow.com. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/73682385/what-are-the-major-differences-between-snapshot-dump-mirror-backup-archive

Please also see Government Information > Federal for Federal Data Preservation Resources. This guide provides access to and information about United States government data and webpages that have been removed since January 2025. It is divided into Environmental Data, Health and Medical Data, Other Data, and Government Websites. A list of groups working to rescue government data is also available.These resources are intended for research purposes and will be updated as new information is available. If you are have data resources to share, please contact your subject librarian. When searching for government data that may have been removed, search in this order:

Not sure what dataset you need? Here are some search tips. Your subject librarian can also help you with this. For help evaluating data quality, the Data Quality Literacy Guidebook is a good place to start. As you search for information, save your sources, particularly datasets and government publications. Note the date you were last able to access a source in case it isn’t available later.

Check the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine and other repositories for removed data sources or websites. Please note that this is a living document and will be regularly updated with new information as we monitor this evolving situation. If you have recommendations or corrections, please contact us at lib-research-data@umd.edu. Since Donald Trump's second inauguration, he has signed dozens of Executive Orders and issued numerous statements that have directed government agencies to delete thousands of government web pages, removing important government data from public... As of February 22, 2025, nearly 3,400 datasets have been removed from Data.gov alone. Among the pages taken down are more than 3,000 pages from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 3,000 pages from the Census Bureau, more than 1,000 pages from the Office of...

The removed pages contained data, information about policies and programs, training materials, guidelines, and press statements. Information related to public health, LGBTQ+ rights, climate change, and other topics that the Trump administration has targeted in ant-DEI orders and memos. The Scholarly Kitchen outlines the dangers of these actions; they warn that consequences include: (Meadows, A. 2025, February 19. Declaration to #DefendResearch against US government censorship.

The Scholarly Kitchen). Guide co-editors: Isabella Baxter, Cindy Frank, Lindsay Inge Carpenter, Lexi Kadis Data for this list has been pulled together from many sources; a large portion of this information comes from the efforts of people contributing to the Data Rescue Project listed below. The Data Rescue Project is a coordinated effort among a group of data organizations, including IASSIST, RDAP, and members of the Data Curation Network. You can email them at datarescueproject@protonmail.com. DataLumos is an ICPSR archive for valuable government data resources.

ICPSR has a long commitment to safekeeping and disseminating US government and other social science data. DataLumos accepts deposits of public data resources from the community and recommendations of public data resources that ICPSR itself might add to DataLumos. The Innovation Lab has created a data vault to download, sign as authentic, and make available copies of public government data that is most valuable to researchers, scholars, civil society and the public at... They have collected major portions of the datasets tracked by data.gov, federal Github repositories, and PubMed. IPUMS provides census and survey data from around the world integrated across time and space. IPUMS integration and documentation makes it easy to study change, conduct comparative research, merge information across data types, and analyze individuals within family and community contexts.

Data and services available free of charge. This guide was originally compiled by the librarians at American University in Washington, DC. The original guide can be viewed here:American University Data Rescue Guide This LibGuide is a living document that is continually being edited and improved. Much of the original content was derived from a Google document titled “Data Rescue Efforts,” which circulated in February 2020. The collaborative group behind that document has since grown into the Data Rescue Project.

We gratefully acknowledge their foundational work and the ongoing, collective efforts of the data preservation community. Below is a concise guide to help you locate US federal government data that may have been removed or redacted following the Presidential Executive Orders that went into effect on January 31, 2025. Please note that this guide only covers how to find removed information. For current or active government data, you should use Data.gov, which remains the best resource for discovering existing federal data. Before you begin searching for rescued data, it's a good idea to double-check that the information is truly gone from official sources: If you have confirmed that the data or information is missing, move on to archival resources.

Email: ka025@bucknell.edu Office: Bertrand 107A Phone: 570.577.2423 Email: cmp016@bucknell.edu Office: Bertrand 107D Phone: 570.577.1068 Email: jbhm001@bucknell.edu Office: Bertrand 109 Phone: 570.577.2055 This work is a copy of the guide titled "Government Information Data Rescue" by the American University Library (2025). It is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0 This guide is a living resource for those concerned about access to publicly available government data.

The current situation is in flux; we, along with many other academic institutions and the library and archives community, are monitoring the situation. This guide will be updated as we identify additional resources. Many organizations are doing great work to help preserve and provide access to federal websites and data. The list below highlights a few of these organizations and archives of federal data/websites. The first three resources are guides created by librarians at other institutions that include many additional resources of possible interest. Climate Change and Human Health Literature Portal (CCHHL) data dump, via Internet Archive

Bibliographic information about research items (e.g. journal articles) as compiled by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). Data.gov archive, via Harvard Law School Library Innovation Lab The information in this research guide is, in part, attributed to the work of Sarah Gilchrist, Olivia Ivey, and Gwendolyn Reece of American University, Washington, D.C. Below is a concise guide to help you locate US federal government data that may have been removed or redacted following the Presidential Executive Orders that went into effect on January 31, 2025. Please note that this guide only covers how to find removed information.

For current or active government data, you should use Data.gov, which remains the best resource for discovering existing federal data. Before you begin searching for rescued data, it's a good idea to double-check that the information is truly gone from official sources: If you have confirmed that the data or information is missing, move on to archival resources. The Internet Archive Wayback Machine is the largest web archive, capturing snapshots of websites across the internet over time. It allows you to view websites as they appeared on specific dates in the past.

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This LibGuide Is A Living Document That Is Continually Being

This LibGuide is a living document that is continually being edited and improved. Much of the original content was derived from a Google document titled “Data Rescue Efforts,” which circulated in February 2020. The collaborative group behind that document has since grown into the Data Rescue Project. We gratefully acknowledge their foundational work and the ongoing, collective efforts of the data ...

For Current Or Active Government Data, You Should Use Data.gov,

For current or active government data, you should use Data.gov, which remains the best resource for discovering existing federal data. Before you begin searching for rescued data, it's a good idea to double-check that the information is truly gone from official sources: If you have confirmed that the data or information is missing, move on to archival resources. The Internet Archive Wayback Machin...

The Current Situation (February, 2025) Is In Flux, So Along

The current situation (February, 2025) is in flux, so along with many other academic institutions in the library and archives community the Gordon Library at WPI is monitoring the situation. This guide will be updated as we identify additional resources. Would you like to suggest resources that would be helpful to add to this guide? Please let one of the librarians listed below know and they can a...

Each Term Has Distinct Purpose And Definition*: *Zhao, Jimmy. (2022,

Each term has distinct purpose and definition*: *Zhao, Jimmy. (2022, November 4). What are the major differences between snapshot, dump, mirror, backup, archive, and checkpoint?. Stackoverflow.com. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/73682385/what-are-the-major-differences-between-snapshot-dump-mirror-backup-archive

Please Also See Government Information > Federal For Federal Data

Please also see Government Information > Federal for Federal Data Preservation Resources. This guide provides access to and information about United States government data and webpages that have been removed since January 2025. It is divided into Environmental Data, Health and Medical Data, Other Data, and Government Websites. A list of groups working to rescue government data is also available.Th...