Government Shutdowns and Government Data Scrubbing
Many of the publicly available government resources we rely on a daily basis for vital information concerning population, age, gender, employment, and health are not available during a government shutdown. This shows the importance of preserving government information and the role libraries play in preserving federal and local documents in print and archiving them online. This guide will help find alternatives to commonly used government resources.
In addition, during transitions between governments, as is the case now, new administrations will scrub data from websites. This guide will be updated to better reflect this ongiong crisis. This active google document is attempting to provide resources of recently scrubbed data and websites as well as provide context for what is happening.
Check back for more updates!
Government Resources that may not be Available during Shutdown and Alternatives
USC Databases with Government Information
- Proquest Congressional This link opens in a new windowThis database indexes and abstracts a broad spectrum of Congressional publications, including hearings (testimony), committee prints, reports, documents, and full text of bills and public laws, and the U.S. Statutes at Large from 1789 to the present.
- Nexis Uni (formerly LEXIS/NEXIS Academic) This link opens in a new windowDatabase of full text online news, legal cases, and company information from 1980 to present. Includes Nexis Dossier and Total Patent One.
- CQ Almanac This link opens in a new windowThe CQ Almanac Online Edition brings together over 60 years of authoritative congressional reporting in one resource. The site pairs all of the content from the print volumes with a number of electronic features and functions that make navigating this immense amount of content fast and easy. And while certain idiosyncrasies have occurred between volumes over the years, efforts have been made to create a uniform interface that facilitates searching and browsing of all content. With the online edition users can:
Navigate with ease through over 60 years of congressional coverage
Access tables, graphs, and charts that help explain the issues
Browse by subject, decade, or by a particular year's table of contents
Use Policy Tracker to explore a specific policy topic and see how it has changed over the years
Save useful documents or frequent searches for future consultation
Automatically generate citations in four styles with CQ Press's CiteNow! feature
Alternatives to Census.gov
- SimplyAnalytics This link opens in a new windowA web-based mapping, analytics, and data visualization application with 100,000+ data variables, including: demographic data from the US Census and American Community Survey (ACS), consumer spending data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey (CEX), and D&B's Points-of-Interest business file providing access to over 5 million US business profiles. Includes MRI-SimmonsLOCAL consumer behavior dataset, which includes data on over 8,000 brands, 450 categories, and the MOSAIC consumer lifestyle segmentation system. Data is available down to the Census Block Group level.
- Social Explorer This link opens in a new window
- PolicyMap This link opens in a new windowInteractive mapping tool for viewing and creating maps displaying economic, health, and social data.
- StatsAmericaA service of Indiana University's Business Research Center.
- Internet Archive Wayback MachineAn archived version of the Census Bureau’s site (and of other government websites as well) is available through the Wayback Machine internet archive. Click on the agency logo to get to the archived site, and (ignoring the message that the site is down) click on the section you are looking for. Not all features will work well, and because it is archived, the site may not have all the content that was available just before shutdown.
- Missouri Census Data CenterOffers census data (including estimates from the recently released 2012 American Community Survey) for every state in the country.