A short list of resources that I frequently use and refer others to (and in a few instances, things I’ve created or maintain).

Data Sources

• Geolode – catalog of websites that provide free and open GIS data
• Open Geoportal – metasite for the OGP community
• Natural Earth – global vector and raster features at different scales
• GADM – global administrative boundaries database
• Census TIGER – US legal, admin, and statistical divisions and geographic features
• USGS National Map – US elevation, topographic, and lulc data and maps
• PRISM Climate Data – US rasters for temperature, precipitation, and more
• data.census.gov – US population and socio-economic data
• UNdata – global country-level population and socio-economic data

Tutorials

• GIS Practicum (QGIS) – Frank’s introductory GIS / QGIS workshop manual
• Geospatial Tutorials – tutorials created by the team at GeoData@SciLi at Brown
• atcoordinates YouTube – channel with videos on finding and accessing US census data
• GEP 664 – course Frank taught in spatial database management using PostGIS
• Zetcode tutorials – collection includes SQLite, PostgreSQL, and Python
• OSGeo Educational Resources – comprehensive list of tutorials for FOSS GIS software

Resources

• Country Centroids – text files of country centroid coordinates that I created from government sources in 2012
• Radical Cartography Projections – good visual reference for map projections
• Spatial Reference – spatial reference system definitions in many formats
• G.Projector – java tool from NASA for global map projection visualizations
• US Board on Geographic Names – gazetteers with US and international place names and coordinates
• GeoNames – global gazetteer with bulk country downloads and many APIs
• MABLE Geocorr – crosswalks for US census geography from the MCDC
• US Census Geocoder – single match and batch geocode files with 10,000 addresses
• Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection – good source for free maps (spatial and non-spatial) from the University Texas