ACRL Government Relations Committee

Hi all, 

Most of you have noticed some peculiar messaging that is being posted on some government websites. Examples of messaging are below:

My question to you all-is this something we should add to the Impacts to Higher Education under the 'Direct' section? Some of my colleagues and I are disturbed by this messaging, especially seeing this during one-shots. This makes it harder to teach students that government data is reliable, unbiased and prejudiced. 

I look forward to your thoughts. 

Sincerely, 

Natalie M.

------------------------------
Natalie Marquez
Reference Library Assistant
University of California, Irvine
She/Her/Hers
------------------------------

This goes to the accessibility and reliability of information, which is squarely within the purview of academic libraries. I think that general topic is worthy of our attention, and I think the particular example Natalie mentioned falls appropriately within that topic. 

Recall in January 2025, there was some concern about the removal of information from government sites. Harvard library began archiving such information so that it wouldn't disappear.  That's another example that could be mentioned.

Best,

 

Jim Abernathy
Reference Law Librarian
Young Law Library
University of Arkansas School of Law

Office:  479-575-7958

Waterman Hall, Rm 202B | 1045 W. Maple St. 
University of Arkansas | Fayetteville, AR  72701

jima@uark.edu 

------------------------------
Jim Abernathy
Reference Librarian
University of Arkansas Law School Library - Fayetteville, AR
------------------------------

Hi Jim,

Thanks for sharing that. I am also adding an item that is from a couple weeks ago:

https://www.infodocket.com/2025/10/10/research-tools-the-library-innovation-lab-at-harvard-law-school-announces-launch-of-data-gov-archive-search-access-to-311000-datasets-17-9-terabytes-of-data/

I will add this topic to the agenda for all of us to discuss in our next meeting.

Sincerely, 
Natalie Marquez
UCI Libraries
marquezn@uci.edu


Original Message:
Sent: 10/16/2025 2:57:00 PM
From: Jim Abernathy
Subject: RE: Government website messaging

This goes to the accessibility and reliability of information, which is squarely within the purview of academic libraries. I think that general topic is worthy of our attention, and I think the particular example Natalie mentioned falls appropriately within that topic. 

Recall in January 2025, there was some concern about the removal of information from government sites. Harvard library began archiving such information so that it wouldn't disappear.  That's another example that could be mentioned.

Best,

 

Jim Abernathy
Reference Law Librarian
Young Law Library
University of Arkansas School of Law

Office:  479-575-7958

Waterman Hall, Rm 202B | 1045 W. Maple St. 
University of Arkansas | Fayetteville, AR  72701

jima@uark.edu 

------------------------------
Jim Abernathy
Reference Librarian
University of Arkansas Law School Library - Fayetteville, AR
------------------------------

Natalie, I won't be able to attend the working meeting tomorrow, but I wanted to add another example to the list of removals of information from government websites.  If this topic is added to the agenda, then maybe this would be a useful source to cite?

------------------------------
Jim Abernathy
Reference Librarian
University of Arkansas Law School Library - Fayetteville, AR
------------------------------