As a part of the transition between the Biden and Trump administrations, there has been a great deal of change to digital government information. 

For example, many webpages and datasets have been deleted or modified to comply with executive orders, especially those related to DEI, gender and sexual orientation, public health and climate. Furthermore the federal data landscape is changing quickly, for example last week some public health data was ordered to be restored, and as new Executive Orders are enacted, other categories of data may be at risk for deletion. 

While many of the impacted web resources had been proactively archived by the National Archives and The End of Term Archive, archiving the data has proved particularly complicated because of the way some federal data tools are constructed. 

Because long-term access to these datasets is crucial not only for completing new research, but for the reproducibility of already completed research, many librarians, researchers, and other interested parties are working to archive as much federal data as possible.

In order to keep our community informed, Colby Libraries have created a guide which we will update with the most current information about where to access federal data.

If you have suggestions for the guide or any questions related to accessing specific datasets, please contact Bonnie Paige ([email protected]) or Kara Kugelmeyer ([email protected])