Data defenders make information accessible again

On a typical day, any information specialist might hit up the coffee pot, settle into their workspace, and pull up a few of the thousands of federal government webpages featuring Americans’ public-owned data. 

But on February 5, instead, many of them landed on screens that said, “This site can’t be reached.” 

“Overnight, we stopped having access to the data we use daily to protect the air, water, land, wildlife, and people where we live,” recollects SELC Geospatial Analyst Libbie Weimer.  

Go-to datasets and digital tools to understand them did not survive the Trump Administration’s order for federal agencies to remove information related to things like race, gender, health, and climate science from their websites — a move with dire consequences in the South, where people, especially in Black and low-wealth communities, face heavy pollution and rely on this data to protect themselves. 

Missing digital tools included EJScreen, which Weimer uses to help staff understand basic information about our Southern communities facing the most environmental injustice, from spiking levels of pollution and high energy burden in South Memphis, Tennessee, to increased flood risk in the coastal communities of Charleston, South Carolina, and Norfolk, Virginia. 

Other missing data tools 

• Low-income Energy Affordability Tool 
• Climate and Environmental Justice Screening Tool 
• Energy Justice Mapping Tool 
• Environmental Justice Scorecard 
• USFS’ Climate Action Tracker 
• Future Risk Index 

In response, Weimer dove headfirst into a community of data defenders working together to archive information from thousands of missing government webpages. Amid the chaos, she and her fellow data defenders are transforming this crisis into an opportunity — uniting their niche skills to ensure this data is accessible to the communities and organizations that depend on it. 

Connecting people to information 

Weimer’s role at SELC is essential. She connects our Southern communities and staff of legal experts to data they use to keep people and the environment safe. She’s also a seasoned mapmaker, data-visualizer, and roller-skater. 

Although public information and data tools Weimer uses have gone dark, her ability to get the job done hasn’t wavered. That’s thanks to the emergent collective of people downloading and saving this at-risk government data — a group made mostly of small organizations and individuals experienced in maintaining public records. 

“Librarians are such an underrated resource,” says the mapmaking roller-skater, emphasizing how these information specialists often go unnoticed, but have a distinct knack and avenue for sharing data on everything from criminal justice to education to health. “They take their job of connecting people to information very seriously.” 

Outside of the library stacks, multiple data rescue groups have also formed, with some like the Environmental Data & Governance Initiative coming together as a result of the similar attack on information after the 2016 election. These folks got a running start on archiving data ahead of the second Trump administration and are still charging forward, while reminding the public that data preservation and archival work have always been nonpartisan. Projects like the End of Term Web Archive have existed to capture and save U.S. government data since 2008, collecting big batches at the end of every presidential term.  

We all share a deeply held belief that everyone should have access to information.

Libbie Weimer, Geospatial Analyst

A spike in press and public interest in the 2016 term resulted in archiving triple the amount of data than the 2012 end of term efforts. The amount of collected data doubled again in 2020 and the group is currently archiving information from the end of the 2024 term. 

Plenty of other ordinary people have flooded data rescue events across the country where anyone can learn how to help preserve at-risk government data. 

“We all share a deeply held belief that everyone should have access to information,” says Weimer, referring to data analysts like herself, librarians, and the many other rescuers pitching in with their unique interests and resources. “Trying to increase that access means we’re all thinking about the different needs of people who use information.” 

Computer and technology enthusiasts are offering up their abundant data storage to download public files, often relying on forums and servers within the larger community to spread the word about what they’ve archived.  

Weimer adds, “I think that’s beautiful.”

Passing the data baton 

This geospatial analyst has had a busy month answering the phone to reporters with questions about mass data erasure — yet another way Weimer is making an impact by drawing on her skill of connecting people to information. 

It’s actually pretty simple. Americans have invested millions of dollars in gathering this information — public data belongs to us.

Libbie Weimer, Geospatial Analyst

One of the reasons the EJScreen tool she uses is so important is because it allows anybody to look up important public info, “without necessarily going through the bottleneck of consulting technical experts.” 

Public Environmental Data Partners made an exact copy of EJScreen. It’s featured in a new online guide Weimer created to host archived data.  

Weimer’s guide is one of many to surface after the government’s data takedown, and it focuses on specific datasets related to SELC’s work. Her strategy included downloading and organizing our most niche public information, which seemed least likely to get swept into larger data recovery efforts. 

She maintains the online guide by cross-referencing other grassroots trackers like this one built by the Data Rescue Project, a coordinated effort among several data organizations. 

Comparing herself to the final runner in a relay race, Weimer’s lost data guide is the baton of critical information she passes off to attorneys and our communities on the ground. It’s one way SELC stands by our partners and Southern neighbors during uncertain times. 

The future of public information remains unknown 

Regular people have foiled the Trump administration’s plan to deny the public’s right to know. The collective effort to save critical data about our health and environment is worth the fanfare, but Weimer says many questions remain around the future of public information.  

For Weimer, those inquiries look like: 

• How widespread will the government’s censorship of public information become? 
• If information on issues such as climate change and environmental racism are stricken from government websites, will government agencies ignore the data in their decision-making?  
• What environmental, public health, or other data is the federal government going to measure now? 
• How and when will they make it available to the public? 

For now, what’s getting Weimer by is her “huge amount of gratitude” for the grassroots crew that’s figuring it all out. Giving one last nod to her favorite ambassadors of sharing public information, she adds, “Especially the librarians.”