Federal statistical agencies generate critical data about the nation’s population, economy, and natural resources. These data are gathered largely by mobile field data collection. Although geospatial information is an essential reference material in the field and serves as a base for recording spatially-linked data, it is nearly always used in printed forms due to limitations in mobile computing systems and tools for handling geospatial data. The ability to interact with digital geospatial data in the field offers significant enhancements for data quality and operational efficiencies. In this paper, we briefly summarize research on extensible infrastructure designs for limited field computing environments and appropriate field tools for mobile data gatherers.