If you are currently conducting research using government-provided statistics, reports, articles, images, or other information, you might hit some roadblocks due to the U.S. Government shutdown. Effective Oct. 1, many of the government websites and databases we take for granted are now unavailable or available in a more limited way. This could impact your research, as well as the research of faculty and students across the country. Here’s a short list of some government-based databases and websites affected by the shutdown.
Government websites unavailable:
- ERIC — The Library has four different interfaces for this important educational database supported through the federal government. The interfaces through OCLC, EbscoHOST, and Proquest will provide article searching to find citations. However, full text is unavailable from the actual ERIC.gov site, and the direct interface at the ERIC website is completely offline at the time of this post. We have selected older ERIC documents available on microfiche, and some will be available in other publications at Tech Library by selecting the “Linksource” icon in the citation. The friendly librarians at the Reference Desk will also be able to assist you in finding these resources from other sources, and Interlibrary Loan can also help provide you with documents during the shutdown.
- Census.gov — Census websites are now closed, and all services associated with them. This includes American Fact Finder, Federal Statistics, and other government statistical websites.
- Bureau of Economic Analysis
- Business.gov
- CDC Wonder — a comprehensive on-line public health information system of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- Data.gov
- Disability.gov
- FCC (Federal Communications Commission)
- FTC (Federal Trade Commission)
- NASA
- National Center for Education Statistics
- National Parks Service
- USDA (United States Department of Agriculture)
- United States Copyright Office
Government websites with limited functionality or limited updates
- AHRQ (Agency for Healthcare Research & Qaulity)
- Bureau of Labor Statistics
- CDC (Centers for Disease Control), including National Center for Health Statistics
- HUD (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development)
- National Archives
- NIH (National Institutes of Health)
- NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)
- Pubmed
- United States Forest Service
- USGS (United State Geological Survey)
Government websites with full functionality:
- THOMAS — This government website contains a fully searchable database of congressional bills and legislation. The site continues to be updated as events in Congress unfold.
- Statistical Abstracts of the United States (via Proquest)–A comprehensive summary of statistics on the social, political, and economic organization of the United States.
- HealthCare.gov–This site features information for the new national health insurance program provided by Affordable Healthcare Act. The first day to sign up for the service was October 1st, and while there have been reports of glitches and crashes, the site appears to be functioning…for the moment.
- All websites and information necessary to protect lives and property.
- Most of the direct-links to government documents as found in our online catalog.
Some Arkansas-related websites and places affected by the shutdown include all of the national parks within the state, the Clinton presidential library, and other nationally funded museums and historic sites.
For more information about the government shutdown, visit the USA.gov site which describes in more detail the ramifications of the government shutdown on national services and agencies.
As the list grows or shrinks, we’ll keep updating this post as we are informed. If you have problems locating information, contact the librarians here at Ross Pendergraft Library at askalibrarian@atu.edu, and we’ll help you find the work-arounds to the shutdown.
