Ways you can help

Ways you can help
Photo by Matthew Waring / Unsplash

Recently, we have received many expressions of interest and offers of help. We have over 400 subscribers; many of you have filled out the volunteer Google form. The Data Rescue Project is grateful for all of you and your offers to assist. We are trying to keep up with the interest while also working day jobs and living our lives. Please be patient with us if we are slow to respond. We will read and respond to everything we can.

Below are some suggestions for getting involved:

  • For those who want to do more, please leave your information on our Google form. Include information about your skills and/or interests, and we will try to put your efforts in the right direction.
  • If you are planning a data rescue event, please contact us by email so we can share some information with you directly.
  • If you are concerned about a specific agency, get in touch, and we will let you know if efforts are already underway. You can see the datasets we’ve already submitted to Data Lumos.
  • If you are more interested in PDF reports or websites, be sure to check End of Term Crawl to see if the documents and sites have been nominated. We are working on some guidance for people concerned about this type of information. 
  • We also have volunteers working on the Data Tracker and trying to track the many places that datasets have gone.

If you’d like to learn more:

  • Learn about the Current Efforts and Resources and share these with your communities. The mission of the DRP has been to coordinate and communicate first. We want to ensure people know the broader issues around federal data preservation.
  • Feel free to send additions to the above lists. We've been collecting suggestions from the original Google doc, but as we are slowly discontinuing that document, an email would be quicker!
  • Learn more about a few efforts through this MuckRock webinar on the disappearance of federal data. Thank you to MuckRock and Jack Cushman of the Harvard Library Innovation Lab for inviting us.

The DRP has existed for only three weeks, and we have accomplished a lot already. We are constantly amazed by the widespread interest in federal government data and these efforts. But we also know that these are stressful times, and we encourage all of you to find downtime and space for yourselves. Take care of each other! We have a long road ahead. ❤️