Need some help?
Librarian
Search the Libraries for books, journals, articles, media and more.
Framing Your Data Search
What geographic level are you trying to represent/analyze? What types of features do you need to represent?
For example,
- Do you need to represent states, counties, cities (points or polygons), etc?
- Do you need to see streets, water, elevation information?
- Do you need parcel or ownership information?
Who would create this kind of data?
- federal government (specific agency or branch?)
- state government (specific branch or group?)
- county government
- city government
- commercial entities
- ??????
Would this type of data be publicly available or restricted in some way?
- Could the information be restricted to protect someone from harm?
- Might the information be restricted because of privacy issues?
- Other restrictions?
What data formats are you willing/able to work with?
What kind of online tools might help you locate the data you need?
- Data search tools.
- Mapping tools that provide access to the data too.
- Imagery search and or display tools.
Online Mapping & Databases
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PolicyMapPolicyMap is a web-based online data and mapping application that provides access to over 15,000 indicators related to demographics, housing, crime, mortgages, health, jobs and more. Data is available at all common geographies (address, block group, census tract, zip code, county, city, state, MSA) as well as unique geographies like school districts and political boundaries. Data comes from both public and proprietary sources.
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Social ExplorerOffers the ability to create customized maps and reports of demographic, housing, and employment patterns throughout the United States using data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
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SimplyAnalyticsSimplyAnalytics (formerly SimplyMap) contains extensive data including demographic, real estate, housing, employment, consumer spending, health data, D&B business points-of-interest file and marketing data from EASI including Life Stages and Mediamark Research (MRI) with current estimates of usage and consumption (propensity) for thousands of very specific and detailed products, including actual brand data, frequency of usage and more. Users can create customized maps and reports; data is available at the State, County, City, ZIP Code, Census Tract and Block Group level as well as custom trade area and the entire United States.
Newly added to SimplyAnalytics in Dec. 2018: Nielsen Scarborough surveys more than 210,000 people across the country to capture local consumer trends from over 140 large and mid-tier markets.
Click on Help to watch training videos. "Sign in as a guest" if you do not wish to register for a personal account. Personal accounts save your preferences, reports, and maps. Licensed for 5 concurrent users.
Open GIS Data Sites
Big Ten Academic Alliance Geoportal
The Big Ten Academic Alliance Geoportal provides discoverability and facilitates access to geospatial resources. The resources in the portal are selected and curated by librarians and geospatial specialists at ten research institutions in the Big Ten Academic Alliance. The resources include GIS datasets, web services, and digitized historical maps. Learn more about the research institutions involved and the sources of the geospatial records.
GIS Data
Selected web sites from the John R. Borchert Map Library.
OpenGeoportal
The Open Geoportal (OGP) is a collaboratively developed, open source, federated web application framework to rapidly discover, preview and retrieve geospatial data from multiple repositories. The Open Geoportal Federation is a community of geospatial professionals, developers, information architects, librarians, metadata specialists and enthusiasts working together to make geospatial data and maps available on the web and contribute to global spatial data infrastructure.
data.gov
New data site with a subset of federal data and geospatial data available. Advantage: Can look easily for some specific formats including KML/KMZ and Shapefiles.
Spatial Data at MIT
Use the "Find Data" tab.
Free GIS Data Online
Site from Stanford to help track down GIS data and imagery.
Find Statistics & Data
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Data Planet Statistical DatasetsProvides access to statistical data produced by U.S. Federal agencies, States, private organizations, and major intergovernmental organizations. There are up to 2 billion charts, maps, views, rankings, time series and tables available for use in the Data-Planet repository.
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Data-Planet Statistical Ready ReferenceSearch geographic data and view charts, maps, and rankings of time series at the country, state, county, MSA, postal code, and census-tract/block group levels. All of the data are drawn from authoritative sources and are citable.
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Statistical InsightSearch statistical publications from US and state government agencies, international intergovernmental organizations, professional and trade organizations, business organizations, commercial publishers, independent research organizations, and universities.
Searching for Articles
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Google Scholar (Setup connection to get to PDFs)Use Google Scholar to find articles from academic publishers, professional societies, research institutes, and scholarly repositories from colleges and universities. If you are using from off-campus access, change the "Library Settings" to University of Minnesota Twin Cities. Look for the "FindIt@U of M Twin Cities" links in your Google Scholar search results to access full text and PDFs.
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Libraries SearchSearch the University of Minnesota Libraries to find books, scholarly journal articles, news, magazines, media, and other items in the University's collection.
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Academic Search PremierA great place to start your research on any topic, search multidisciplinary, scholarly research articles. This database provides access to scholarly and peer reviewed journals, popular magazines and other resources.
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Web of ScienceA comprehensive interdisciplinary collection of journal article citations. Subjects generally covered are within science and technology, arts and humanities, and social sciences.
Research Resources by Subject
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All subject guidesListing of all subject guides from the University Libraries
Tracking Your Research
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Citation Management ToolsCitation managers are software packages used to create personalized databases of citation information and notes. They allow you to: import and organize citation information from article indexes and other sources save links to pdfs and other documents, and in some cases save the document itself format citations for your papers and bibliographies using APA and many other styles include your own notes
