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GIS Resources at Ball State University Libraries: Accessing Data

List of GIS Resources including data, software, training and news.

Accessing GIS Data on LIBGIS

Ball State faculty, staff and students can access hundreds of local, national and global GIS datasets on the LIBGIS server.

The collection includes GIS data from local county GIS departments, including Delaware, Henry, Madison and Marion County, selected State GIS layers and national and global data including United States Census and American Community Survey datasets. 

For instructions on mapping a network drive to the LIBGIS server, see our quick tutorial:

Project Specific GIS Data Requests

Project specific GIS data may be requested by emailing the GIS Specialist at gislibs@bsu.edu

Include the type of data you need, the area you need the data for, and the format you need the data in if you are not using the data in ArcGIS software.

Indiana GIS Data Resources

The largest publicly available collection of Indiana Geographic Information System (GIS) data. 

Please note that the IndianaMap is migrating to a new website.  Until the data migration is complete, use the link above to access the Legacy IndianaMap and the data that is still provided there.  The Legacy IndianaMap includes a link to the new IndianaMap site where you can access all of the data that has been migrated over.

The Indiana Spatial Data Portal (ISDP) provides access to more than 30 terabytes of Indiana geospatial data.  Most datasets are available to the public for download and have no use restrictions.  Available statewide datasets include aerial photos, topographic maps, LiDAR and elevation data, and Sanborn historic maps.  In addition, the ISDP hosts several local datasets for Allen, Bartholomew, Boone, Dearborn, Gibson, Hamilton, Hancock, Hendricks, Johnson, Marion, Monroe, Morgan, Posey, Shelby and Wayne Counties.  You will need to create an IU Guest Account to access this data.

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​"The Indiana Department of Health's GIS Portal is dedicated to the public health work of IDOH divisions, programs and missions. It provides geospatial software solutions and access to open data hosted by government agencies and health organizations. The IDOH Office of Data Analytics supports geospatial data and mapping needs across the data process. Areas of focus include 2D and 3D map production; interactive data applications; story-board graphic web pages; offline and spatial data collection and survey; GIS web services and data hosting."

National Data Resources

A federal metadata repository that serves as the primary resource for data discovery at national, state, and local scales.

  • BLM GeoCommunicator

    Provides a centralized location to discover and access BLM's geospatial data from project, state, and national levels.

  • CDC GIS Data

    U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Links to public health and related geospatial data at both the national and international level.

  • USDA Geospatial Data Gateway

    U.S. Department of Agriculture.  Provides natural resource, agriculture, and imagery data (requires up-to-date java).

  • USGS EarthExplorer

    U.S. Geological Survey. Provides satellite images, aerial photographs, and other cartographic products.

  • IPUMS U.S. Data sites

IPUMS Terms of Use and Citation information

IPUMS USA - Data includes decennial censuses from 1790 to 2010 and American Community Surveys (ACS) from 2000 to the present.

IPUMS CPS - IPUMS Current Population Survey (CPS) harmonizes microdata from the monthly U.S. labor force survey, the Current Population Survey (CPS), covering the period 1962 to the present.

IPUMS NHGIS - IPUMS National Historic GIS (NHGIS) tabular US Census data and GIS boundary files for years from 1790 through the present.

IPUMS Health Surveys - historic and contemporary US health survey data from NHIS (1963-present) and MEPS (1996-present).

International Data Resources

CIESIN works at the intersection of the social, natural, and information sciences, and specializes in on-line data and information management, spatial data integration and training, and interdisciplinary research related to human interactions in the environment

IPUMS provides census and survey data from around the world integrated across time and space. 

IPUMS Terms of Use and Citation information.

IPUMS International - world's largest collection of census microdata covering over 100 countries, contemporary and historical.

IPUMS Global Health - health survey data for Africa and Asia, including harmonized data collections for DHS, MICS, and PMA.

IPUMS IHGIS - The IPUMS International Historical Geographic Information System (IHGIS) provides tabular and GIS data from population, housing, and agricultural censuses around the world.