This isn’t very helpful as far as avoiding sounding alarmist, but you could point to what happened in Canada  as an example of why it’s important to download what you can when you get it:

 

http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/vanishing-canada-why-were-all-losers-in-ottawas-war-on-data/ 

 

http://ourrighttoknow.ca/the-vanishing-act-of-government-documents-and-what-to-do-about-it/

 

 

Susie Wilson, MLIS

Data Services Librarian

Geoffrey R. Weller Library

University of Northern BC

250-960-6607

www.unbc.ca/library

 

 

From: Maps-L: Map Librarians, etc. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Edward Sullivan
Sent: Friday, February 17, 2017 7:07 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: disappearing data

 

You might point to similar concerns and efforts by university libraries and researchers elsewhere, e.g.:

 

https://record.umich.edu/articles/library-participates-effort-preserve-government-data

 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wired.com/2017/02/diehard-coders-just-saved-nasas-earth-science-data/amp/

 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/datapub.cdlib.org/2017/02/09/government-data-at-risk/amp/

 

Edward Sullivan / Economic & Planning Systems

 

 

 

Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device



-------- Original message --------
From: Christopher Thiry
Date:02/17/2017 06:48 (GMT-08:00)
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: disappearing data

All,

 

I know this is for a more general librarian audience.

 

I am trying to put together a libguide that will give advice to researchers here on campus.  I am struggling with how to tell them to copy any federal government data on the web that might be important to their research.  I am trying not to sound too alarmist, but daily reports tell us about federal data sites that have been trimmed or taken down entirely.  

 

I was spurred on by a visit from a former student worker of mine.  I told her to copy the data she needed from the USGS site.  She wondered why anyone would want to shut down something about seismic activity.  Oklahoma comes to mind.

 

I need to put something together that is pretty neutral.  There are libguides out there regarding backing up your data, but this topic is a little different.

 

Any advice you can give me would be much appreciated.  

 

Christopher J.J. Thiry

Outreach, Instruction, and Geospatial Information Librarian

Colorado School of Mines

1400 Illinois

Golden, CO 80401

p. 303-273-3697

f. 303-273-3199