GIS and Geography Resources Guide
The Indiana State Data Center collaborates with the geo-community in Indiana, where we are lucky to have a healthy group of dedicated practitioners and educators from various backgrounds, with all skill levels represented.
Our State Geographic Information Office is now a fully funded part of state government as of 2023. Indiana’s Geographic Information Officer, Megan Compton, leads a team of talented professionals in state leadership who support GIS users. The Indiana Map, or Indiana’s Geospatial Open Data Portal, is the main public portal for accessing statewide geodata. Anyone can create a free IndianaMap Community User account to explore the data. The state holds an annual GIS Day each November which is open to the public.
As geographers, GIS and data professionals, public servants, workers in the field, and related researchers, we belong to the Indiana Geographic Information Council (IGIC) to support geospatial data users and provide one another with professional development opportunities. The IGIC website is full of online resources and webinars for viewing.
Geospatial data practitioners join our community annually at the Geospatial Coordinators Forum and at a state GIS Conference held by IGIC.
The Geography Educators Network of Indiana (GENI) connects Indiana educators with GIS teaching and learning resources and serves students learning geography and GIS.
The Polis Center at Indiana University Indianapolis maintains SAVI, where you can use their geospatial tools to find neighborhood-level data.
While the industry standard for GIS software is ESRI’s ArcGIS, free sources do exist for learning the software and there are options for open source GIS software as well: QGIS, Grass GIS, and OpenStreetMap.
National-level resources that support GIS users include: the U.S. Census Bureau’s Geography Program, U.S. Geological Society (USGS), the Geospatial Professional Network (formerly URISA), the National Council for Geographic Education (NCGE). Colleges and University Libraries are also excellent sources of information for new geospatial data users, as they create multiple research and subject guides for using this type of data.
SDC KS 11-18-2024