Accessing Archived & Deleted Government Pages and Data

Use this page to . . .

  • learn how to access information that is archived during an executive administration change.
  • find deleted government webpages and data. 

Answer

End-of-Term Archived Information

During the transfer of presidential power, the outgoing president's digital records are archived by a few different government sites, select an archive from the list below. 

  • Library of Congress–Executive Branch Federal Government Web Archive: "This collection includes websites from United States executive branch agencies. It includes main websites for cabinet level agencies but also specific reports, websites for individual parts of agencies, and websites for related organizations. . . . This collection began in July 2016 and continues to the present (this is an ongoing archive). Many of these websites have older captures, however, as far back as 1996."
  • National Archives & Records Administration–Archived Presidential White House Websites: "White House websites are Presidential records. The official files that make up a Presidential administration's website are preserved in our Executive Office of the President Electronic Records Archive. In order for the public to easily access the websites, the National Archives has taken an additional step to "freeze" the White House websites and make them available online."
    • A Spanish language site is available for President Bush's, President Obama's, and President Biden's White House website. 
  • National Archives & Records Administration–Presidential Libraries: "Presidential Libraries are archives and museums, bringing together the documents and artifacts of a President and his administration and presenting them to the public for study and discussion without regard for political considerations or affiliations." This NARA research guide for Presidential Libraries includes a list of links to all sixteen library websites.
Deleted Government Pages and Data

Due to record and data management practices established during previous presidential terms, many organizations outside the government started archiving government webpages and data. If you hit a 404 error code during searches on government domains or cannot find previously posted information, use the list of data preservation efforts below to help you find the missing information you need. 

  • Boston University School of Public Health's "findlost*data": This search tool "provide[s] an easy way to search for datasets across various sites," including Archive.org's CDC mirror site (maintains lost CDC data post-Jan. 2024), Harvard Dataverse, Data Rescue Project, Climate Program Portal, Harvard LiL Data.Gov mirror, and Data Lumos.

  • The Data Rescue Project may have preserved any data you cannot find via the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. "They maintain the Data Rescue Tracker, which lists rescued datasets along with links to where they have been archived. The Data Rescue Tracker is continually being updated, but it is not comprehensive. If your dataset or information is not listed, proceed to check other archives" (Breen, et al.).

  • "The End of Term Web Archive captures and saves U.S. Government websites at the end of presidential administrations. The EOT has thus far preserved websites from administration changes in 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020, and 2024."

    • A subsection of the EOT Archive, the Webrecorder US Government Web Archive preserves US Government websites from the 2024 change in administration. This collection of facsimile sites mirrors the organization and navigation of the original sites; this easier search option was not previously available. 

  • "The Internet Archive Wayback Machine is the largest web archive, capturing snapshots of websites across the internet over time. It allows you to view websites as they appeared on specific dates in the past. By entering a URL in the Wayback Machine site, you can see archived versions of that site from different dates, effectively allowing you to go back in time and recover content that might have been removed or changed" (Breen, et al.).

    • "CDC datasets uploaded before January 28th, 2025" allows you to access files containing all CDC datasets uploaded to https://data.cdc.gov/browse as of January 28th, 2025 via the Internet Archive. The files exclude corrupted datasets and data that was not in the public domain. 

    • GovDocs is a "collection [that] contains digital versions of United States Government documents as well as other government documents." The collection is loosely organized by government department and may be more easily searched via keyword. It is stored on the Internet Archive.

    • "ERICA is a rescue catalog which preserves over 500,000 Open Access publications originally hosted by the US Department of Education in the ERIC research repository. ERIC was defunded on the 23 April 2025 and the maintenance contract is set to expire soon, meaning that ERIC is likely to shut down. The PDFs were rescued using the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine by a volunteer of the Data Rescue Project. When you click on one of the publication ID links, you will be redirected to the archived PDF in the the Wayback Machine."

  • Public Environmental Data Partners–Data & Screen Tools: This site was created by "a volunteer coalition of several environmental, justice, and policy organizations, researchers across several universities, archivists, and students who rely on federal datasets and tools to support critical research, advocacy, policy, and litigation work." They preserve and provide public access to federal environmental data.
Related Info

Freedom of Information

Sunshine Week

If you are interested in learning more about Sunshine Week, an annual event focused on educating "the public, journalists, lawmakers, and others on the right to know in the U.S. and federal government" (sunshineweek.org), please check out the following pages. 

Works Consulted

To create this FAQ page, the following LibGuides were consulted for resource suggestions.

  • Breen, Jessica, et al., editors. "Government Information Data Rescue." University Library, American University, 2025, subjectguides.library.american.edu/data_rescue/home. Accessed 20 May 2025.
  • "Finding Government Information during the 2025 Administration Transition." University of Minnesota Libraries, U of Minnesota, 14 May 2025, libguides.umn.edu/c.php?g=1449575&p=10773922. Accessed 20 May 2025.
  • "Locating Deleted Government Data & Information." University Libraries: InfoGuides, George Mason University, 25 Apr. 2025, infoguides.gmu.edu/c.php?g=1450486&p=10853934. Accessed 20 May 2025.
  • Smith, Kelly L., editor. "Federal Government Information After the 2025 Transition." UC San Diego Library, UC San Diego, 17 May 2025, ucsd.libguides.com/FederalGovInfoPostTransition/home. Accessed 20 May 2025.
  • Last Updated May 20, 2025
  • Views 10
  • Answered By Ms. Yarborough

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