Research Guides: Geographic Information Systems (GIS): Tutorials and Help Resources

Map Projections

Projection Wizard
Projection Wizard is a web application that helps cartographers select an appropriate projection for their map.
Map Projections video clip
A quick 1 minute video explaining map projections.
How to Define and Project Layers in ArcMap Youtube Video

Cartography Tips
Choropleth Classification Methods
Modifying Colors and Symbols in ArcMap

This tutorial will guide you through how to change the display of your data in ArcMap, including colors, symbols, and re-categorizing the data to make a meaningful map.

Colorbrewer
Test out various color schemes for your map. Click Export at the bottom of the map to download a color tool that can be used in ArcMap.
Data Color Picker
Helps you choose colors for palettes, single hue and divergent colors.
TypeBrewer
Test out map fonts. They can be downloaded as an Adobe Illustrator template.
Ordnance Survey: Cartographic Design Principles
List of principles to promote good map design
Ordnance Survey Blog: List of Map Design Resources
A list of helpful map design resources from Britain's national mapping authority. This post lists several online resources that can help with your latest map design; from choosing the right color palette to selecting great fonts. Some of these resources are specific to map-making and some are more general. They are not tools for making maps but tools to help with the map design process.

Find census data
Video Tutorials: How to use Social Explorer census data in ArcGIS Pro
This series of 4 videos will show you how to download census data from Social Explorer and join it with census boundary files using ArcGIS Pro.
Census Data Visualization Gallery
Census data APIs

Excel Geocoding Tool
This tool returns the Lat/Long of address locations using the Bing Maps geocoding service. You may need to chunk the addresses into batches of 500 to prevent the tool from timing out.
Texas A&M Geocoder
These services are provided free of charge in allotments of 2500 transactions. TAMU asks that you cite them in your work and/or add a link to them on your website.
US Census Geocoder
The Census Geocoder is an address look-up tool that converts your address to an approximate coordinate (latitude/longitude) and returns information about the address range that includes the address and the census geography the address is within. You can submit up to 10,000 addresses at a time. Only includes US addresses.
Google GeoCoding API
Geocode up to 2500 addresses in a 24hr period.
QGIS: MMQGIS plugin
Use the geocoding plugin in QGIS, a free, open-source GIS software. You can choose from OpenStreetMap data or Google, which has a limit of 2500 addresses a day.
geocodio
US and Canadian addresses; 2500/day for free and $.50 for each 1000 after that

How to Geocode Addresses in ArcMap
How to Add a list of Coordinates as Points in ArcMap

This tutorial will teach you how to display a table of coordinates as points on your map and export them to a new shapefile.
How to search for business data in Reference USA and add it to ArcMap

Learn how to search for businesses in Reference USA and then add the coordinates to ArcMap to create a point data file.

ESRI Spatial Statistics Resources
Links from ESRI to videos, tutorials, presentations and documentation.
Spatial Statistics workshop materials

How to Use ESRI Business Analyst

Learn how to search for businesses by type, location, size. etc. using ESRI Business Analyst.
How to search for business data in Reference USA and add it to ArcMap

Learn how to search for businesses in Reference USA and then add the coordinates to ArcMap to create a point data file.

Geospatial Science Master's Degrees
A guide with a quick summary of industry applications, tools & technologies, and degree programs. It also includes a list of geospatial information resources (job sites, organizations, conferences, etc.).
ESRI Moocs
Free, online classes hosted by ESRI on the ArcGIS platform.
URISA list of GIS programs