Notice: Beginning Tuesday, January 21st, all MSU all students, staff, and faculty must scan their MSU ID to access the MSU Library building between 10:00 pm – 7:30 am on Sunday - Thursday.
Notice: Beginning Tuesday, January 21st, all MSU all students, staff, and faculty must scan their MSU ID to access the MSU Library building between 10:00 pm – 7:30 am on Sunday - Thursday.
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The Map Library offers services relating to maps, atlases, and geospatial information science (GIS) technology. All students, staff, faculty, and community members can visit the Map Library to explore our paper and digital collections. Our staff are available for class visits and individualized consultations.

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(517) 884-6467

366 W. Circle Drive, East Lansing, MI 48824

MSU Main Library, 2 East

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Featured

MSU's 1863 Land Grant

September 09, 2024

Kathleen Weessies

What land was actually behind MSU's Land Grant? See an interactive map of the actual land parcels selected through the 1862 Morrill Act program.
Map of MSU's 1863 land grant

John Farmer, Mapmaker

August 06, 2024

John Farmer was Michigan’s most astonishing mapmaker. His accurate and detailed maps of Michigan, dating 1825-1859 coincided with an enormous influx of settlers.
A man in a black suit

Footpath to Freeway

August 06, 2024

Michigan maps evolved in step with the development of the road system and showed advances such as named roads and numbered state and federal routes. Publishers include map giants Rand McNally and Gousha who supplied oil companies with their ubiquitous freely distributed road maps.
A man in a car and a map
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Events & Workshops

  • Finding GIS Data (Online)

    February 05, 2025 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM

    In honor of Love your Data week, we present a workshop on GIS data discovery. Finding GIS data can be difficult. However, there are many databases and sources that make finding GIS data easier. This workshop will cover a variety of places to search for data sources, including US Government sources, non-profits, census data and collaborative geoportals. Some library licensed spatial data sources, such as SimplyAnalytics will also be presented. Additionally, metadata standards and geospatial data evaluation will be discussed. 

  • Learn QGIS: Make a color shaded map (Online)

    February 26, 2025 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM

    Learn the basics of QGIS, the free open-source geospatial software—this workshop will demonstrate fundamental GIS skills including how to make a choropleth (color shaded) map, load shape-files and .csv table files into QGIS, join data to spatial information and edit features.    

  • Survey and field collection tools for gathering spatial data

    March 19, 2025 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM

    There are a growing number of useful applications that let you collect spatial data via the web and in the field, either on a community level or via individuals in the field. This workshop will demonstrate and/or discuss open source options (such as Kobo Tool Box) and ESRI’s Survey123. ESRI’s Field Maps will also be discussed. The discussion will cover how to access these tools, what you should be aware of when you use them, what kinds of data they produce and how to integrate that within your own GIS. 

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