Lesson on data sources(e.g. ArcGIS online, Living Atlas)

[brent_rambo]

Hello community. I'm very new to GIS. I've gone through a few ArcGIS Pro lessons, but none of them and none that I can find, explain the data sources. And I'm struggling there. 

I expected to find a primary source for interstates or transit lines or rail lines or counties, etc., but I see many different entries for data I search. Some say they are by Esri, under various versions of Esri names, but some look to be from government agencies, while others appear to be from random users.

When I searched for "interstate" within ArcGIS Online I expected to see an official layer with the entire US interstate system, but what I got were entries from specific states, interstate pipelines, and random user entries.

What do I choose? How do I know which is accurate and complete? I do realize I can filter, but I'm still left with many entries.

Every lesson I've started utilizes particular layers or project files, and the explanation of the data / layers is always skipped over. Perhaps it's just how my brain works, but I'm having trouble moving forward without understanding how to browse the wealth of data to layer over the basemap.

Thank you.

[HeatherSmith]

@brent_rambo I recommend starting your search on ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World, since the data found there is curated and maintained. You can browse the data on the ArcGIS Living Atlas site with various filters, including Esri-only content and Authoritative-only content. The item pages for each data item on ArcGIS Living Atlas will have complete metadata that explains where it was sourced from.

If you are searching for data within ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Pro, switch the search space to Living Atlas. 

[brent_rambo]

Thank you. I'll focus on that source.