Government Resources
The U.S. government sponsors and is responsible for a great deal of scientific research in the geosciences. The sites below are either search engines for accessing scientific information generated by the government or are specific websites for the United State Geological Survey, the Nation's largest water, earth, biological science and civilian mapping agency.
- Science.govScience information provided by U.S. Government agencies.
- U.S. Geological SurveyThe USGS collects, monitors, analyzes, and provides scientific information about our natural resources.
- USA.GovOfficial web portal to U.S. government information and services.
- USGS Publications WarehousePotential source for full-text USGS publications.
Alternative sources for government datasets
Since January 2025 a number of government data sets and webpages have been taken offline. Several organizations have projects to save and provide access to government data and websites.
- Data Rescue ProjectThe Data Rescue Project is tracking datasets that have been saved and organizations that are maintaining them
- Harvard Law School Library Innovation LabThis project is preserving all the datasets posted to the data.gov website.
- DataLumosDataLumos is a crowdsourced repository for government data.
- End of Term Web Archive / Internet Archive Wayback MachineWhile datasets are not the primary focus of this preservation project, it does archive many federal government websites during presidential administration transitions. A link to the Wayback Machine and instructions on how to find sites archived by the project can be found by scrolling to the bottom of the page.
- Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC)TRAC has been collecting and analyzing government staffing, spending, and enforcement activities data since 1996, with a special focus on immigration.
To track ongoing changes to government websites (and more general government activities) this weekly roundup is especially useful. Scroll to the bottom to find the section on web content changes.
