Searching for Federal Data
UPDATED March 20, 2025
As Maryland’s State Library Resource Center, the Pratt Library is delegated by the state to provide transparent, equitable public access to information and services. The mission of the federal data strategy is to fully leverage the value of federal data for mission, service, and the public good by guiding the federal government in practicing ethical governance, conscious design, and a learning culture.
Data Archiving
Since January 20, 2025, federal government websites and their data have been changed, abridged, or removed by presidential executive orders. Data archiving, or the capture and storage of online content, is a research activity. However, since 2025, a determined effort has been undertaken to preserve federal government datasets as well as websites of federal agencies.
The SLRC Searching for Federal Data Research Guide is a compilation of archived websites and datasets; alternate sources of data and research provided before and since 2025; a goldmine of academic library guides to sources for archived data and websites; and a bibliography of news reporting with links to even more sources.
The guide will be updated at regular intervals.
Table of Contents
- Data Archiving Efforts Since January 2025
- Alternate Sources of Data from State & Nongovernmental Organizations
- Library Guides to Data Archiving
- Bibliography of Reporting & Announcements on Data Scrubs
Data Archiving Efforts Since January 2025
Federal government websites and datasets of subjects from agencies across the federal government have been collected for effective research and public use by volunteers, organizations, and university libraries.
Compilations
- Archive.org: End of Term 2024 Web Crawls
- Archive Team: US Government
- Data Rescue Project
- Current Efforts
- Data Rescue Tracker
- Data Rescue Efforts (early version of Data Rescue Tracker)
- r/DataHoarder: US Government FTP and HTTP File Servers
- Taking Note of Removed Videos from US Government Video Channels
Environmental Science
Healthcare and Public Health
- ACASignups.net: Archived CDC Webpages
- Brown University: US Federal Government Data Backup
- CDC Guidelines on Birth Control and Reproductive Rights Issues, Sexual Health, Intimate Partner Violence
- Climate Mirror: US Federal Climate Data
- Columbia Climate School: Silencing Science Tracker Resources
- Cornell University Research & Innovation: Updates on Federal Policy Changes
- FDA.gov Archive Index
- Harvard Law School Library Innovation Lab Team
- Internet Archive: CDC datasets Uploaded Before January 28, 2025
- Internet Archive: Democracy’s Library, Government Publications for Everyone
- University of California Curation Center: Government Data at Risk
Library Science
Alternate Sources of Data from State & Nongovernmental Organizations
New and existing sources provide live alternatives to unavailable federal government data sources for users.
Compilations on Assorted Topics
- Data Curation Network
- Data Rescue Project: Existing Alternative Data Sources
- Harvard Dataverse
- Investigative Reporters & Editors: Federal Databases
- ProPublica: Nonprofit Explorer, Annual Company Tax Returns
Business and Economy
Healthcare and Public Health
- American College of Surgeons and the American Cancer Society: National Cancer Database
- Association of Health Care Journalists’ Health Journalism Data
- Commonwealth Fund: State Medicaid and CHIP Fact Sheets
- Data Rescue Project: Public Health
- Health Care Cost Institute: Private Health Insurers Data
- Immunize.org: Archives of CDC’s Vaccine Information Statements
- International health data such as Health Canada
- Johns Hopkins University: Data Sources for Health and Medical Research
- KFF (formerly the Kaiser Family Foundation): Polling, Government Agencies, Policy & Diseases
- NYU Grossman School of Medicine's Department of Population Health: City Health Dashboard
- National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network: PCORnet Data Reports
- ProPublica: Dollars for Docs 2013-2018
- ProPublica: Nursing Home Data Compare and Nursing Home Inspect (before 2022)
- National Rural Health Association: Rural Hospital Data by State
- State health department websites, such as California Health and Human Services Open Data Portal
- United Network for Organ Sharing
- University of Washington Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation: Topics of Health
- University of Washington Population Health Institute: County Health Data
Science
Social Science
Library Guides to Data Archiving
A compilation of academic library guides to web and data rescue efforts to supplement this research guide.
- Data Rescue Project: Library Guides
- American University: Government Information Data Rescue
- Butler University: Alternative Sources for Archived Government Data
- Claremont Colleges: Federal Government Data Rescue
- George Washington University: Data Preservation Efforts and Data Sources
- GODORT: 2025 Presidential Transition
- Hamilton College: How Do I Find Statistics and Data?
- Haverford College: Web Archiving and Data Rescue
- Ohio State University: 2025 Federal Data Availability
- Salem State: Data Preservation 2025
- Syracuse University: Numeric Data Resources: Preserving Government Data
- Trinity College: Finding and Preserving Government Data
- University of Albany: Government Info Beyond .gov
- University of California, Merced: Looking for U.S. Federal Data?
- University of Minnesota: Finding Government Information During the 2025 Administration Transition
- University of Notre Dame: Archived Federal Data 2025
- University of Utah: 2025 Data Rescue Overview
- University of Virginia: Government Information Data Rescue
- Tufts University: Archived Data (General)
- University of California, San Diego: US Government Information, Trump Trackers
Bibliography of Reporting & Announcements on Data Scrubs
A brief bibliography of news reports of redactions and announcements of data archiving efforts.
General
Harper, Lauren, Archiving Resources, Freedom of the Press Foundation, February 6, 2025
Jacobs, James. “Call to Arms: What Government Information Librarians Can Do to Help Save Critical Federal Information from Being lost.” Free Government Information, February 5, 2025.
Lucas, Julian, “The Volunteer Data Hoarders Resisting Trump’s Purge,” New Yorker, March 14, 2025
Miller, Naseem S., “As the US Government Removes Health Websites and Data, Here’s a List of Non-government Data Alternatives and Archives.” Journalist’s Resource, February 3, 2025.
Mithani, Jasmine. “What We Saved from the Government’s Data Purge.” the 19th, February 4, 2025.
Panella. Chris. “Pages Have Been Disappearing from Government and Military Websites. Here's What's Already Purged.” Business Insider, February 8, 2025.
Singer, Ethan. “Thousands of Government Web Pages Have Been Taken Down Since Friday,” New York Times, February 3, 2025.
Suber, Peter, “The Trump Administrations on Open Access Research,” Harvard University Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, updated daily
Healthcare and Public Health
AHCJ Staff. “Blog: What Journalists Should Know About Disappearing Federal Health Data.” Health Journalism, January 31, 2025.
Military
Balk, Tim. “Arlington Cemetery Website Loses Pages on Black Veterans, Women and Civil War.” New York Times, March 14, 2025.
Levin, Kevin M. “US Army Deletes Lesson Plans Focusing on African American History, the Civil War and Women's History at Arlington National Cemetery.” Civil War Memory, March 8, 2025.
Need Help?
As Maryland's State Library Resource Center, the Enoch Pratt Free Library has a broad collection of resources for evaluating and verifying sources of information. If you need additional assistance please contact us.
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Social Science & History
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