Ways To Help Preserve Government Data Finding Government Data During

Bonisiwe Shabane

-Oct 27, 2025, 9:41 AM

ways to help preserve government data finding government data during

Below are links to the various efforts currently being undertaken to preserve US federal data. While much data are already preserved by researchers and places such as ICPSR, there are still pockets of data that are not archived. This list will be updated as new information comes out. If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact Paul Bern, Research Data Services Librarian at phbern@syr.edu Data Rescue and Preservation Initiatives Links to archived versions of every CDC.gov page available pre-purge

Health Equity Website Preservation Initiative - A form to identify health equity data Federal Climate and Environmental Data Nominations - DataLumos is a crowd-sourced ICPSR archive for valuable government data resources. ICPSR has a long commitment to safekeeping and disseminating US government and other social science data. Place to find historical data on the American population, trends in work and welfare, economic structures and performance, governance and international relations. Covers colonial times to 2000

ICPSR (Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research) maintains a data archive of more than 250,000 files of research in the social and behavioral sciences. It hosts 21 specialized collections of data in education, aging, criminal justice, substance abuse, terrorism, and other fields. Users must register to download data. Internet Archive is a non-profit, digital library providing access to millions of free texts, images, movies, software, music, websites, and more. Click “View More” for links to specific, recommended tools and collections. Includes data from U.S.

Census and American Community Survey (ACS), Health Survey Data, and other global census and survey data. Call the Wilson Library front desk to get help by phone during open hours, or leave a voicemail for next-day follow-up. Use the web form to email us. We respond within 1 to 2 business days. Real people, no bots. All day and night, with help from librarians everywhere.

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.

Editor’s Note: This article is part of our series, “Data Preservation Under the Trump Administration.” Federal data—the backbone of research, policy, and public understanding—is being removed from government websites at an alarming rate, revealing serious gaps in how our nation maintains and provides access to useful public information resources. The recent disappearance of vital tools and information repositories from government websites exposes a deeper structural problem: unlike the print era when government documents were physically distributed to libraries nationwide for preservation, digital information... This creates an environment where valuable public information and analysis tools can simply vanish without explanation or recourse. What’s happening extends far beyond just the disappearance of raw data. Sophisticated analytical tools like the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST) and the Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Justice Screening Tool (EJScreen) have been completely removed from federal websites.

These weren’t mere datasets but complex interactive mapping platforms that made environmental justice information accessible and actionable for communities, researchers, and policymakers. Meanwhile, the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey—which provided critical insights into Americans’ wellbeing during the pandemic—had its files temporarily removed and returned without datasets on sexual orientation and gender identity, effectively erasing information about... When datasets disappear, researchers must conduct painstaking, case-by-case investigations to determine whether information was deliberately deleted, moved without proper redirects, or simply disconnected from central indexes like Data.gov. The sheer scale and scope of federal data collection make this manual detective work untenable, creating an accountability gap where valuable information can vanish with minimal transparency or explanation. This problem isn’t new. Previous administration changes in 2017 and 2021 triggered similar concerns and prompted “data rescue” efforts by researchers, librarians, and advocacy groups.

However, our nation’s scientific community, policy experts, and public interest watchdogs cannot continue relying on emergency preservation initiatives whenever political winds shift. A great many individuals and groups have set themselves to the capture and preservation of as much of U.S. Government data and information as possible. This page serves as the Library's gathering place for reliable, alternative means to discover and access previously public-accessible data and research. Information will be added here as more of these efforts come online (or become otherwise available). Please note that these are just some recommended starting points.

If you need assistance tracking down something particular, please do not hesitate to contact one of the librarians directly, or by emailing reference@drew.edu. The Journalist's Resource, run by the Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy has been providing coverage of the shifts in the availability of U.S. Government reports and data. Overview Article: Researchers rush to preserve federal health databases before they disappear from government websites For additional information about the rapidly changing landscape for federal data, please check out the Office of Research’s page, Database Resources for Researchers, which is part of a series from the Office of Research... Exclusive sources for UChicago researchers

ERIC (Education Resources Information Center) Research Guides from Libraries around the Country American University’s Guide to Rescuing Government Data U.S. government websites may remove or reorganize publicly available content due to changes in administration, agency restructuring, website redesigns, or other archival practices. When this happens, previously accessible reports, datasets, or publications may no longer be available at their original URLs.

This page provides guidance for those seeking such materials. There are a number of trusted archives and repositories maintained by libraries, research institutions, and nonprofit organizations that aim to preserve continued access to government information. Reach out with questions via email, or schedule a research consultation by selecting the link to 'Book an Appointment' UC Davis Library100 NW QuadUniversity of California, DavisDavis, CA 95616 Make a gift to support students, faculty, and researchers. Every day people rely on data from federal agencies.

Farmers check groundwater records to plan irrigation. Coaches look at weather forecasts for safe practice days. Local officials use community surveys to plan evacuations when storms hit. Emergency responders need accurate maps and health data to save lives. In other words federal data guides millions of decisions at all levels. Moreover federal statistics help the public keep government honest.

They show how well programs serve citizens. They highlight where funds go and who benefits. Without solid data civil society cannot track progress or spot problems. Therefore high quality data is a public good we all need. On the last day of January two thousand twenty five many government websites and databases began to vanish. Within days near eight thousand pages disappeared.

Although some content returned after public pressure it remains unclear if it stayed the same. In fact researchers found nearly half of the datasets they compared showed big edits. For example the word that once read gender now says sex. Such changes can hide nonbinary identities. Meanwhile entire teams of experts lost their jobs. The group that collects vital health information about mothers and children was disbanded.

Offices at the United States Agency for International Development and the National Center for Education Statistics also saw mass layoffs. As a result hundreds of federal datasets now sit on servers with no one to manage access. At the Bureau of Labor Statistics staff cuts stopped collection of key price data. This change likely makes the consumer price index less accurate. People and local governments rely on this measure to track inflation on goods and services. Losing these inputs threatens the public’s trust in official figures.

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