The data is falling!
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15353/acmla.n175.6388Keywords:
Data, Preservation, United States, PoliticsAbstract
This GIS Trends column offers another angle on data preservation (see my "Here Today, Here Tomorrow…" piece from the Summer 2024 issue, linked in the references section below). While last time we discussed the loss of research outputs and the data hosted therein with the retirement of Esri's "Classic Story Maps", today we discuss the loss of more "stable" data sources, namely government sources. As we've seen, even something as simple as the name of a place (see Treisman, 2025 on the Gulf of Mexico) can be changed, though even that can lead to a question of changed for who (see Thiessen, 2025 on Denali).
References
Healthy Regions & Policies (HeRoP) Lab. (n.d.A) Save the Data: Data Sets & Guidance from the CDC, EPA, HRSA and more!. SDOH & Place Project: Urbana, Illinois. https://emails.illinois.edu/newsletter/02/615978402.html
Healthy Regions & Policies (HeRoP) Lab. (n.d.B) SDOH & Place Project Data. SDOH & Place Project: Urbana, Illinois. https://uofi.app.box.com/s/fqtslnfkpmgi32pb1cah1eyvmimvp740
IASSIST. (2025, February 10). Data Rescue Project 2025. Collaborative Web Document. Retrieved February 11, 2025 from https://docs.google.com/document/d/15ZRxHqbhGDHCXo7Hqi_Vcy4Q50ZItLblIFaY3s7LBLw/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.dn2mw4skk3ho.
International Democracy Union. (2025). IDU [website]. https://www.idu.org/
Thiessen, M. (2025, January 27). Alaskans say Trump can change name of Denali but can't make people call it Mount McKinley. CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/alaskans-say-trump-can-change-name-of-denali-but-can-t-make-people-call-it-mount-mckinley-1.7442721
Treisman, R. (2025, February 11). Who will call it the Gulf of America? A look at this and other naming disputes. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2025/02/03/nx-s1-5281985/google-maps-gulf-of-mexico-america
Zimonjic, P. (2025, January 9). Elon Musk praises Poilievre, mocks Trudeau as he steps into Canadian politics. CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/musk-canada-poilievre-trudeau-influence-1.7426954

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