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This data is siloed within agencies

Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2025 3:14 am
by aminaas1573
Though much of it is intended to be publicly accessible, we do not have a publicly-accessible central repository where we can search for all government artifacts. We do not have a public library of all government data, documents, research, records, and publications. These artifacts are not easy for everyone to get a hold of.

Instead, this data is organized only to be kept behind paywalls, vended to multinational corporations, guarded by “data cartels,” or sits inaccessibly among thousands of disjointed agency websites, with non-standardized archival systems that are stewarded by under-resourced librarians and archivists. , never before linked together. Although by phone number database law, we are entitled to this data – by default, journalists, activists, democracy technologists, academics, and the public are deprived of meaningful access. Instead, it’s a pay to play system in which many are priced out.

However, if we could reduce the public burden in accessing this knowledge – as the federal government has stated is a priority – then it might be the lynchpin to transforming democratic systems and making them more efficient, actionable, and auditable in the future. This work could potentiate a big data renaissance in political science and public administration. It could equip every local journalist with comprehensive, ‘investigative access’ to policy-making across the country. It could even provide key insights which ensure that democracy survives, thrives, adapts, and evolves in the 21st century; like so many desperately want it to and yet so many fear that it may never. To make our democracy more resilient and prepared for the digital age, we need Democracy’s Library.