Government Information: FDLP and More
Alternatives to Closed Government Databases
This page contains a partial list of workarounds you might try. Links to subscription databases on this guide require a Rice ID for access.
For help with government-related research, please
- contact Government Information Coordinator and FDLP Representative: Anna Xiong, jax2@rice.edu, or govhelp@rice.edu, 713.348.6212
- Hours
- or visit the Information Desk of Kelley Center for Government Information in the basement of Fondren Library
Check also Fondren's collection of LibGuides which recommend databases for specific subjects, and its list of subject librarians for help in specific research areas.
Tangible Documents
For paper documents get help at the Government Information Desk in the basement of Fondren and/or check:
- OneSearch This link opens in a new windowOneSearch searches Rice's library catalog, digital collections, and e-resources such as ebooks, e-journals, databases, and more.
- Microforms: Major Sets by SubjectOver 3,000,000 items from collections around the world on many topics.
- Fondren Library Map CollectionFondren Library's Kelley Center holds an extensive collection of over 50,000 print historical and modern maps, especially of Texas and the Houston area, to support teaching and research. Most are received through the US Federal Depository Library Program, with updates primarily in digital versions. It has also 1000+ mobile oil maps donated by Exxon Mobil.
Comprehensive Fondren Library Databases for a wide range of subjects
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new windowScholarly and general interest sources in business, medicine, humanities, social sciences, and science and technology, including books, journal and magazine articles, bibliographies, and trade publications.
- Nexis Uni This link opens in a new windowNexis Uni™ features more than 15,000 news, business and legal sources from LexisNexis®—including U.S. Supreme Court decisions dating back to 1790— and is a good source for foreign newspapers.
*Previously called Lexis Nexis Academic.
- Government - Fondren Library Databases A-Z ListThis links you to the list of Fondren Library Databases that contain government publications for research. Rice faculty, staff and students have free access to all Fondren Library subscribed databases.
Statistics - General
- Statistical Insight This link opens in a new windowIndexing & abstracts for a range of sources from U.S. federal, U.S. state, and international organization publications.
- Statistical Abstract of the U.S. (Current & Archive Editions) This link opens in a new window"The ProQuest Statistical Abstract of the United States is the authoritative and comprehensive summary of statistics on the social, political, and economic conditions of the United States." See the ProQuest Statistical Abstract LibGuide for tips on using the database.
Agriculture
- Agricola This link opens in a new windowArticles and book chapters on agriculture and related fields.
Census
Free resources:
- Historical Census BrowserAfter many of years of service, the University of Virginia Library's Historical Census Browser site is permanently closed.
- Missouri Census Data CenterContains raw data including for 1,3, and 5 year American Community Surveys and some preformatted reports. Includes U.S. cities and counties in addition to those in Missouri.
- Texas Demographic CenterFocal point for the distribution of Census information for Texas.
Subscription databases:
- Statistical Abstract of the U.S. (Current & Archive Editions) This link opens in a new window"The ProQuest Statistical Abstract of the United States is the authoritative and comprehensive summary of statistics on the social, political, and economic conditions of the United States." See the ProQuest Statistical Abstract LibGuide for tips on using the database.
- Social Explorer This link opens in a new windowProvides access to current and historical census data and demographic information with the ability to create thematic and interactive maps and reports. Includes data on religious congregations.
Note: Users who want to bypass the option to create their own account can click on the Maps&Tables link to access the Social Explorer database. - SimplyAnalytics This link opens in a new windowSimplyAnalytics enables non-technical users to create thematic maps and reports using demographic, business and marketing data.
Congressional and Historical Information
- HeinOnline This link opens in a new windowHeinOnline is the world’s largest fully searchable, image-based government document and legal research database. Fondren Library has access to: 1) HeinOnline Academic; 2) U.S. State Full Package; and 3) Fastcase Premium.
- History LibGuidesCheck the history LibGuides for recommended databases.
- Congressional by ProQuest This link opens in a new windowFull-text access to historical (1789- ) and current U.S. Congressional publications, federal bills and laws, and information about members of Congress and Congressional committees.
Health
- PubMed @ Rice This link opens in a new windowPubMed, a service of the National Library of Medicine, includes over 18 million citations from MEDLINE and other life science journals for biomedical articles back to the 1950s. PubMed includes links to many sites providing free full text articles and other related resources including the PubMed Central digital archive.
- PubMed Central (PMC)A free full-text archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature at the U.S. National Institutes of Health's National Library of Medicine (NIH/NLM). See also PubMed@Rice University .
Environment
- Environmental Science Collection This link opens in a new windowThis "collection combines specialist topic resources from disciplines such as engineering, biotechnology, bacteriology, atmospheric science, ecology and biology and features a diverse range of full-text sources including scientific journals, trade journals, new sources, conference proceedings, reports, monographs, books and government publications (ProQuest)."
- Environmental Health PerspectivesSearchable directory from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences that includes a monthly journal and supplement containing the latest environmental research articles and news.
Statistics - Education
- Digest of Education Statistics byCall Number: ED 1.140:
- edstatsWorldwide database from the World Bank
- UNESCO Institute for Statistics: EducationEducation is the first topic in the left hand column. Also access statistics for science and technology, culture and communication.
- Schools ExplorerTexas Tribune's database combining "key academic, enrollment and financial records on all of Texas' 1,300 districts and 8,500 public schools." Includes charter schools and alternative campuses.
- ERIC (via Ebsco) This link opens in a new windowERIC contains over 800,000 references to thousands of educational topics. The sources it indexes include journal articles, books, theses, curriculum, conference papers, and standards and guidelines. See the list of ERIC numbers only available in microfiche, not online, at http://eric.ed.gov/pdf/ERIC_KeepList.pdf.
- ERIC (via FirstSearch) This link opens in a new windowERIC contains over 800,000 references to thousands of educational topics. The sources it indexes include journal articles, books, theses, curriculum, conference papers, and standards and guidelines.See the list of ERIC numbers only available in microfiche, not online, at http://eric.ed.gov/pdf/ERIC_KeepList.pdf.
If there is no access to the online version, you can use the subscription ERIC databases as an index to find an ED number and check in the Kelley Center to see if we own that report on microfiche.
Culture and the Arts
- NADAC National Archive of Data on Arts & CultureThe National Archive of Data on Arts and Culture (NADAC) is a repository that facilitates research on arts and culture by acquiring data, particularly those funded by federal agencies and other organizations, and sharing those data with researchers, policymakers, people in the arts and culture field, and the general public. (from their mission statement)
Archived Collections
- Wayback Machine (Internet Archive)For those websites that remain closed, copy the URL and paste it into the search box of the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine to see a pre-shutdown version. The Internet Archive's Wayback Machine has archived the messages over 80 government agencies have used to notify the public about closed and unupdated websites due to the shutdown. The site provides a search box or the ability to sort by agency title or url.
Legislation
- HeinOnline This link opens in a new windowHeinOnline is the world’s largest fully searchable, image-based government document and legal research database. Fondren Library has access to: 1) HeinOnline Academic; 2) U.S. State Full Package; and 3) Fastcase Premium.
- WestlawNext Campus Research This link opens in a new windowWestlaw includes U.S. and state case law (1944-). The system also includes access to: United States Code Annotated, Code of Federal Regulations, Federal Register (fulltext 1980+), state administrative codes and statutes.
- Nexis Uni This link opens in a new windowNexis Uni™ features more than 15,000 news, business and legal sources from LexisNexis®—including U.S. Supreme Court decisions dating back to 1790— and is a good source for foreign newspapers.
*Previously called Lexis Nexis Academic.
Data / Website Rescue Efforts
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Census Reporter – is a free, open-source platform focused on making American Community Survey (ACS) data more accessible, including the recent upload of the 2022 1-Year ACS data
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End of Term Crawl - The main coordinated effort to archive websites, but datasets have been more of a challenge.
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EDGI - They have been focused on environmental data.
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FRED - They have some demographic data as well
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Esri – for mapping users, the GIS vendor publishes a number of U.S. Census Bureau data sets, including the ACS, through its ArcGIS Online Platform
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PolicyMap – offers a free tier that can be used to view basic information down to the tract-level, but more detailed data and functionality requires a subscription
- IPUMS – Even when the government operates normally, many analysts turn to Minnesota Population Center products to access ACS, Current Population Survey microdata and Decennial Census data
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A project out of Harvard’s LIbrary Innovation Lab Team - They have been focusing on data.gov and should release data soon.
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ICPSR Data Lumos - They have the older version of a lot of major data, including some from the CDC.
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Data Liberation Project run by BigLocalNews and MuckRock, which are good groups to follow.
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There was a special archive created on IA of all CDC datasets publicly available as of January 28, 2025
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Datasets in Dataverse - Includes CDC's Social Vulnerability Index data. Most of what's being placed here is data focusing on health and the environment.
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Silencing Science Tracker - joint initiative of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law and the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund. It tracks government attempts to restrict or prohibit scientific research, education or discussion, or the publication or use of scientific information.
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Safeguarding Research - Looks like a newer effort. Unclear where they are at this point. Can add more info if anyone knows about this.
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OSF as option for pre-prints of articles (or your university’s IR)
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Data Hoarder - is coordinating community efforts to rescue data
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ArchiveTeam Warriors - They run a distributed crawler; data is uploaded to Archive.org by volunteers
Tools
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WebRecorder.net has archived 8TB+ of government sites, some from the End-of-Term-Archive seed list, some from EDGI Slack requests, and many sites independently
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ArchiveBox.io has also archived government datasets from data.gov, CIBP, USCIS, NOAA, NASA, NSIDC, and more
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The Original DataRescue Workflow - For reference. Many of the tools are no longer working but the workflow could be useful.
Articles on current efforts
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Why EDGI is Archiving Public Environmental Data, blog post from EDGI
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Preserving federal health data by The Journalist's Resource out of the Harvard Kennedy School
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404 media article citing EDGI, EOT, James Jacobs
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This January 31, 2025 newsletter, Garbage Day, mentions some coordinating efforts by Health Professionals and Journalists to gather the CDC data
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Lending a hand with EOT Crawl from the PEGI Project.
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Thousands of U.S. Government Web Pages Have Been Taken Down Since Friday” by Ethan Singer.
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The Government Information Crisis Is Bigger Than You Think It Is blog post by Free Government Information
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CDC removes gender, equity references in public health material from WaPo
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BREAKING NEWS: CDC orders mass retraction and revision of submitted research across all science and medicine journals from Inside Medicine
- A Look at Federal Health Data Taken Offline from KFF
Government Shutdown Complaint Sites
In the event of another shutdown, the links in this box to news sources and agency contingency plans will be updated.
If you wish to let Congress know how the shutdown is affecting your research and productivity, check the Congressional Directory for Congressional members' contact information.
In Texas use Who Represents Me to identify and find contact information for U.S. Congress members from your district as well for the two Texas Senators.