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Government Information & Data Rescue: Home

Context & General Searching Tips

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!

See below for:

Data & Website Rescue Definitions

Many different terms to capture and store information are used throughout these resources. Each term has distinct purpose and definition*:

  • Archive: Data that is moved elsewhere (a separate storage space or medium) and is no longer actively contributed to or edited. 
  • Data Dump: A Major output of data that can help users either back up or duplicate a database.
  • Mirror: Real-time operation of copying data, as an exact copy, from one location to a local or remote storage space or medium.
  • Snapshot: The state of a system or dataset at a particular point in time.
  • Backup: The copy of data taken and stored elsewhere so that it may be used to restore data after a loss event.
  • Checkpoint: A test operation that verifies data retrieved from the database by comparing that data with the baseline copy stored.

*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  

 

The Data Rescue Project is a coordinated effort among a group of data organizations including:
A librarian at a university is compiling this information. If interested in making suggestions to the list, email iassistdata@gmail.com.

Data & Website Rescue Efforts

Please also see Government Information > Federal for Federal Data Preservation Resources.

Data & Website Rescue Advocacy Organizations

Research & Instruction Librarian

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Kate Boylan
she/her/hers
Contact:
Gordon Library, Room 202C
(508) 831-6591

Dr. Elizabeth Hambleton, R&I Librarian

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Elizabeth Hambleton
Contact:
Gordon 202A

Research & Instruction Librarian

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Mackenzie Harrington
She/Her
Contact:
Gordon Library
508-831-4962

Librarian

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Paige Wilkins
she/her/hers
Contact:
Gordon Library main floor: Room 208B

Attributions

The body of this work has been copied in large part from the guide titled "Government Information Data Rescue" by the American University Library (2025). It is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0. This guide also references Bucknell University's "Government Information Data Rescue" guide, as well as "Alternative Sources for Archives Government Data" from Butler University, "Government Information" guide from MIT Libraries, and "Finding Government Information during the 2025 Administration Transition" guide from University of Minnesota, all referenced and checked in February, 2025.