Preserving Data for Future Learners

Research Strategy & Innovation

Questions? Contact Cameron Nielsen, Scholarly Communication Librarian | researchdata@usu.edu

A digital illustration with a bright blue background featuring a subtle grid and dot pattern. On the left side, large bold white text reads: "Saving Data, Securing Tomorrow’s Learners." On the right side, there is a stylized illustration of a person with blue skin and a bun hairstyle, sitting thoughtfully at a desk. They are facing two computer monitors that display abstract data visualizations: one has a pie chart, and the other shows line graphs. The person is wearing a dark top, white pants, bright orange shoes, and appears engaged with the data on screen.

USU Libraries is actively contributing to the national Data Rescue Project, a grassroots initiative to preserve government data at risk of disappearing. This summer, several student workers and staff from Research Support section are manually archiving critical datasets from the U.S. Department of Education, including over 9,000 files from the NCES DataLab Tables Library.

These efforts respond to increasing risks of data loss from site restructures, deletions, and government changes. In addition to these manually rescued files, USU Libraries has preemptively captured 30 GB of related web content to ensure continuity and context.

The archived materials, preserved with full metadata and provenance, will be available on DataLumos.org, a trusted public repository hosted by the University of Michigan. These files will support researchers, journalists, and students long into the future.