President Barack Obama codified the importance of government-created open data in his May 9, 2013, executive order as a part of the Open Government Initiative. This initiative was meant to “ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration” in furtherance of strengthening democracy and increasing efficiency. The initiative also launched Project Open Data (since replaced by the Resources.data.gov platform), which documented best practices and offered tools so government agencies in every sector could open their data and contribute to the collective public good. As has been made readily apparent, the era of public good through open data is now under attack.

Immediately after his inauguration, President Donald Trump signed a slew of executive orders, many of which targeted diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) for removal in federal government operations. Unsurprisingly, a large number of federal datasets include information dealing with diverse populations, equitable services, and inclusion of marginalized groups. Other datasets deal with information on topics targeted by those with nefarious agendas—vaccination rates, HIV/AIDS, and global warming, just to name a few. In the wake of these executive orders, datasets and website pages with blacklisted topics, tags, or keywords suddenly disappeared—more than 8,000 of them. In addition, President Trump fired the National Archivist, and top National Archives and Records Administration officials are being ousted, putting the future of our collective history at enormous risk.

While it is common practice to archive websites and information in the transition between administrations, it is unprecedented for the incoming administration to cull data altogether. In response, unaffiliated organizations are ramping up efforts to separately archive data and information for future preservation and access. Web scrapers are being used to grab as much data as possible, but since this method is automated, data requiring a login or bot challenger (like a captcha) is left behind. The future information gap that researchers will be left to grapple with could be catastrophic for progress in crucial areas, including weather, natural disasters, and public health. Though there are efforts to put out the fire, such as the federal order to restore certain resources, the people’s library is burning. The losses will be permanently felt.

Where to Find Open Data

Around the same time that our collective data was pillaged in the name of “defending women’s rights” and “expending precious taxpayer resources only on making America great,” I gave a presentation about data at the Iowa Libraries Online Conference (ILOC) on Jan. 30. ILOC is an impressive, free, all-day conference for librarians and trustees, funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). That’s another organization under fire from the Trump administration with his revocation of Executive Order 14084, which promoted and encouraged investment in libraries and museums as institutions crucial to democracy.

My keynote was about how libraries can utilize open data to both evaluate their internal operations and better understand the communities in which they live and work. Though federal priorities have changed, and some of the links I used just weeks ago now lead to “page not found” errors, state and local grant-making will still rely on applicants to make their case through data-supported narratives. Employing data to improve the lives of people in your community, including current and future library users, is a task we must not abandon. Some of the data sources I include here are federally held. By knowing about them, using them, and checking in on them regularly, you can help ensure that this data does not go quietly into the night, and you can sound the alarm if you notice something awry.

Government Sources

American Community Survey

The American Community Survey (ACS) is the granddaddy of community data. It uses both decennial census data and 3- and 5-year estimates of the largest metropolitan to the smallest block areas. The ACS provides demographic data on age, sex, race, household type, English as a second language, income, poverty, housing, disability status, education, and so much more. It also gives users a look at digital equity through statistics on computer and mobile device usage and internet adoption. Using this tool to compare your area to your region and state and the country allows you to make a case about your community’s needs on specific fronts. While not the most user-friendly tool for the data novice, the wealth of information there is worth devoting time to a deep dive.

Economic Research Service

The Economic Research Service from the Department of Agriculture (USDA) compiles data from multiple federal organizations for its Atlas of Rural and Small-Town America, which provides “statistics by broad categories of socioeconomic factors.” The atlas uses demographic, economic, income, veterans, and other data to show county-level trends in population, migration, unemployment, poverty, and disability. These datasets are downloadable and can help libraries target programming, outreach, services, and partnerships to address community needs. Sometimes, these needs are invisible, and tools like this one help cast a much-needed light.

PLACES

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has a PLACES program that provides “local data for better health” using “small-area estimation for counties, incorporated and census designated places, census tracts, and ZIP Code Tabulation Areas. …” Having this robust data for the smallest places in the country is crucial to identifying and addressing community issues, ensuring that high-quality data is not available only for the most densely populated areas. While definitions of rural differ among organizations, around a fifth of the U.S. population lives in a rural area, and almost 97% of U.S. land area is categorized as rural, according to 2020 census data. Knowing what is going on there, who lives there, and how organizations like public libraries can be a part of problem-solving there requires data.

The PLACES interactive map allows the user to view information on health, risk behavior, social needs, insurance coverage, sleep, smoking, asthma, cancer, depression, disabilities in every category, mental health, and the social determinants of health (internet, housing, education, poverty, minority status, unemployment, etc.).

Because PLACES provides information much more granularly than most, data found here is highly customizable and specific to your direct area. You can easily lose yourself in this treasure trove of information for days, and I highly suggest diving in for even a few minutes at a time to begin creating a full picture of your area.

Another great tool in the CDC’s belt is the interactive Social Vulnerability Index map. This resource is now directly under fire from the current executive orders; it states as much on its main page. The site was originally purged and later required to be restored by court order. The index shows how community stressors impact people based on demographic and socioeconomic factors.

Out of curiosity, I performed a site search of the term “transgender” and got no results, begging the question as to what data on the site or in the index the administration found threatening enough to remove. However, even if there is data on transgender people included here, transgender people very much always have and will continue to exist in our communities and are our friends and neighbors. Knowing the challenges they face and how we might respond to improve their lives is valuable information for those working for positive change.

For a complete listing of each social vulnerability variable tracked and reported to help communities respond to hazardous events, natural disasters, and “prevent human suffering,” check out the documentation PDF, and download any datasets of interest to keep a copy of the information.

Food and Nutrition Service

The USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service offers a robust dashboard of data relating to food security, nutrition, WIC and SNAP utilization, childhood nutrition and meals served through the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs, local food access, farmers markets, participation rates, and more. If your library participates in a summer lunch program, has a seed library, partners with another organization to provide snacks for kids, or just is noticing that hunger may be a problem, you can use this data to make a case about bringing in healthy food options or even just to inspire leaders to use library space to host a program for those with the tools to more directly affect change.

Smart Growth

The Environmental Protection Agency’s Smart Growth tools help elucidate problem spots in our transportation systems. Walking, biking, mass transit, and other similar modes of transportation improve our quality of life and make our communities more exciting places to live and work. For people without personal transportation or who have physical disabilities, communities with common sense transportation options are even more critical. Tools on this site include the National Walkability Index, which shows walkability down to the census tract level, and the Smart Location Database, with census tract information on accessibility, public transit, population density, and more. Datasets like these could help you make the case for holding a Safe Routes to Libraries event and being a part of your town or county’s complete streets or comprehensive plan and bring attention to the ability of people to safely use the library.

Nongovernment Sources

Government websites are not the only way to access important information about your community. While nongovernment sites and organizations often rely on government-created aggregate data, the future of which is currently ambiguous at best, many employ their own analysis tools, harvest the data so it is located in more places than just on government servers, and make that data freely available for public consumption.

University of Wisconsin

The University of Wisconsin has deeply invested in data analysis and public availability. Its Center for Health Disparities Research in the School of Medicine and Public Health provides the Neighborhood Atlas, a tool that shows the level of disadvantage a neighborhood has relative to other places. While it uses government data and was originally funded by the National Institute on Aging in the National Institutes of Health, the content is claimed as its own.

The university’s Population Health Institute in the School of Medicine and Public Health provides another tool, County Health Rankings & Roadmaps. This data is released annually and provides a “revealing snapshot of how health is influenced by where we live, learn, work, and play.” The purpose of the data is to “provide communities a starting point to investigate where to make change.” Areas can be viewed alone or compared to one another and are available down to the county level. Factors of interest to libraries could include frequency of mental distress, poor mental health days, food insecurity, ratios of patients to doctors, high school completion rates, reading and math scores, child care, suicides, and broadband access.

Opportunity Insights

Opportunity Insights is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization based out of Harvard University whose mission is to “identify barriers to economic opportunity and develop scalable solutions that will empower people throughout the United States to rise out of poverty and achieve better life outcomes.” One of its most interesting data tools is the Opportunity Atlas, which provides data and forecasts at the neighborhood level for how the place where a child is born, the economic status of their parents, race, and other factors impact that child’s future. Libraries can leverage this data to help shape juvenile and family programming, outreach, and partnership efforts to improve outcomes for the long-range future.

Migration Patterns

Migration Patterns is a partnership among the Census, Opportunity Insights, and Policy Impacts from MIT. It aims to show users where people migrate to and from between childhood (age 16) and young adulthood (age 26) and how where a person is originally from can determine in which labor market they may end up. The migration trends can also be broken down by parental income and race. These trends matter for libraries because communities cannot thrive without a complete workforce. Population drain, brain drain, and a declining labor market contribute to the death of previously thriving communities. Children need to feel welcomed, accepted, and supported by their community in their formative years to be convinced that they should live and work as adults in the place they grew up. The library can help be a driver of population retention efforts by introducing the data and offering to be part of the solution since healthy libraries are a cornerstone of healthy communities.

Feeding America and Reinvestment Fund

Feeding America’s Map the Meal Gap provides information on food insecurity, food costs, and hunger in communities across the country. Data is broken down by all individuals, children, older adults and seniors, place, race, and ethnicity. In addition, Reinvestment Fund’s interactive map provides information on access to healthy food, limited access to supermarkets, and food deserts. This data can be used alongside the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service data to identify needs and make a case to funders about how the library can help address food insecurity. Libraries can also partner with organizations that are already addressing these needs and use the opportunity to spread the word about free library resources and services.

Putting Data Into Practice

The data sources listed here are only a selection of the numerous organizations compiling high-quality datasets with the goal of identifying and solving problems. Anecdotes illustrate examples of problems we see and face at our libraries, but they are often not enough to transform words into dollars. Data turns anecdotes into actionable needs and supports implementable solutions. Librarians and library workers have the unique privilege of interacting with people from a broad spectrum of backgrounds and situations. Our observations and experiences make us a valuable asset to decision makers, especially given our ability to speak the information language and distill it for new audiences. However, with that power comes great responsibility.

Data as a Weapon

“Books are weapons in the war of ideas.” This famous quote is from a 1942 World War II poster distributed by the U.S. Government Printing Office (now the U.S. Government Publishing Office). S. Broder’s illustration shows Nazi soldiers burning books under a quote from President Franklin D. Roosevelt that reads, “Books cannot be killed by fire. People die, but books never die. No man and no force can put thought in a concentration camp forever. No man and no force can take from the world the books that embody man’s eternal fight against tyranny. In this war, we know, books are weapons.” I would argue that in 2025, this same idea can be applied to not only books, but also to all formats of information, both physical and digital.

Data is a weapon, whether we like it or not. Free and open access to information—about democracy, history, our communities, and even ourselves—is the foundation of library service. It is time for anyone who continues to claim that libraries are not political to wake up before it is too late. Are libraries still not political when the Pentagon barred library access for tens of thousands of American children attending Pentagon schools on military bases while they examined and removed supposed “radical indoctrination” books? Are libraries still not political when more than 1,000 unique titles are being targeted for censorship annually, and soft censorship through preemptive restriction to avoid controversy is surely occurring and impossible to track? It is time for librarians and library workers to embrace being political.

In a country where the federal government now denies that certain people even exist, claims that children are being indoctrinated because they are being taught the good and bad of our nation’s history, and rescinds support for the arts, humanities, museums, and libraries, there is no such thing as neutrality. When compassion and inclusion are labeled the enemy and the diversity created by our great American experiment is lambasted as a social ill, claiming that libraries are neutral or apolitical is not only incorrect, it’s complicit. To update the quote, information is the weapon in the war of ideas. Librarians are the stewards of information. We don’t want to be the Americans who protested in 1933 at the first Nazi book burnings and then, despite seeing the early warning signs of catastrophe, retreated into the isolation of their own concerns. The people’s library is on fire. We must react before all that is left of our profession is ash.