Data Rescue and Archiving

News
line drawing of the white house with the caption 404 page not found

Photo credit: Screenshot of The White House’s 404 page.

The PSU Library is closely monitoring changes at the federal level that may affect access to critical government data for research. Below is a brief list of data and government website rescue efforts that we encourage researchers to explore:

  • Data Rescue Project: A coordinated effort among a group of data organizations, including IASSIST, RDAP, and members of the Data Curation Network to preserve U.S. government data at risk, serve as a hub for current data rescue efforts, and help coordinate ongoing data preservation work. To stay informed about the Data Rescue Project, subscribe to their newsletter and, if you are interested in contributing, fill out their volunteer form.
  • DataLumos: An open-access, crowd-sourced repository for US federal government data established by the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR). DataLumos serves as the primary repository for the Data Rescue Project’s data, including data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Department of Education, and the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS).
  • Data Liberation Project: An initiative currently led by Muckrock and Big Local News to identify, obtain, reformat, clean, document, publish, and disseminate government datasets of public interest.
  • On February 13, MuckRock hosted an event with organizations that are helping lead efforts to preserve public data, such as Internet Archive, Big Local News, Harvard Law School Library Innovation Lab, and the Data Rescue Project. Watch the event recording.
  • End of Term Web Archive: Captures and saves U.S. Government websites at the end of presidential administrations. The EOT Web Archive has preserved websites from administration changes in 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020 and is currently accepting URL nominations for the End of Term 2024 Web Archive.
  • The Data Foundation’s “SAFE-Track” Platform: A secure, encrypted channel to document changes in federal evidence and data activities. 

Other Archived Government Data Projects: Projects like the CDC Website Archive and Data.gov Archive are working to preserve public access to government data.