On Feb. 18 and 19, Lauinger Library hosted DataRescueDC—an event coordinated by Data Refuge, a nationwide movement to preserve current federal environmental data. Over 200 people from the D.C. area participated at the university throughout this two-day initiative.
Over the course of the weekend, people gathered across campus to sort and archive public data. Dozens of extension cords and chargers ran along the aisles of a lecture hall in Reiss on Sunday, where volunteers armed with laptops and headphones worked for hours to archive at-risk data. In this case, that meant various online publications by the EPA.
“This information needs to be available, trustworthy, and public,” said Elizabeth England, a co-organizer for DataRescueDC who works on digital preservation at Johns Hopkins. She stood at the front of the room, keeping track of the group’s progress and aiding with a stream of volunteer questions.
England said this data is vulnerable to erasure, but another main concern is alteration, given administrative changes in these governmental agencies. They focus on data given priority status by the Union of Concerned Scientists , a science advocacy nonprofit headquartered in Massachusetts.
A project created by the University of Pennsylvania’s Program in Environmental Humanities late last year, Data Refuge has hosted events like this around the country. They collaborate with local partners to invite the general public, regardless of experience, to work to collect and store these data.
Although no related experience was required to participate, the participants, according to England, included experts and civil servants affiliated with the very agencies whose data were deemed vulnerable.
To respect this potential need for anonymity, DataRescueDC did not record any information about its participants. They handed out symbolic blank nametags, to be worn by those who did not wish to be identified by the press or other groups.
England said that the event was designed as a grassroots effort. “The whole thing is for this to be approachable,” she said. “There’s something that people of every level of skill can do. And it takes a lot of people to do something like this. It’s a very big task.”
Several staff members at Lauinger Library reached out to Data Refuge to coordinate the event this semester. The library then worked in conjunction with several academic centers to advertise the event throughout the university.
“As somebody who has spent my entire career working in libraries, the things that we prize are the ability to provide students with the most accurate, up-to-date and necessary information. And this allows us to come together as a community and show everyone that this is necessary information,” said Katherine Thomas, the Communications and Marketing Coordinator for the library.
Thomas said the turnout for the event exceeded their expectations. On Saturday, the Murray Room in Lauinger Library was at full capacity, with some volunteers even sitting outside to listen.
After spending the weekend at Georgetown, Data Refuge events will occur Yale University next weekend, and Rice University a week later.
