diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index a546492f..2e6e0684 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -88,3 +88,21 @@ Note: You'll know this step is necessary if an individual spec fails with an err
 ```plaintext
 Blacklight::Exceptions::ECONNREFUSED: Connection refused - Unable to connect to Solr instance using #<RSolr::Client:0x0000000117d5e1a8 @uri=#<URI::HTTP http://127.0.0.1:8983/solr/sdr-core-test/>
 ```
+
+### Loading NYU Data Locally
+
+First, start up the Rails app if it's not already running:
+
+```bash
+$ bundle exec rake sdr:server
+```
+
+This will ensure Solr is up and running.
+
+Then in another terminal run the following Rake task:
+
+```bash
+$ bundle exec rake sdr:load_nyu_data
+```
+
+Once completed, head to <http://localhost:3000/?search_field=all_fields> and you should have a lot more data to work with.
diff --git a/lib/tasks/sdr.rake b/lib/tasks/sdr.rake
index 63d6a90f..b64c0a07 100644
--- a/lib/tasks/sdr.rake
+++ b/lib/tasks/sdr.rake
@@ -78,4 +78,24 @@ namespace :sdr do
       end
     end
   end
+
+  desc 'Clone and index NYU data for local development'
+  task load_nyu_data: :environment do
+    exit unless Rails.env.development?
+
+    puts 'Removing existing edu.nyu repo...'
+    FileUtils.rm_rf('tmp/opengeometadata/edu.nyu')
+
+    puts 'Cloning edu.nyu repository...'
+    system 'bundle exec sdr-cli clone --repo=edu.nyu'
+
+    puts 'Deleting Solr index...'
+    Blacklight.default_index.connection.delete_by_query '*:*'
+    Blacklight.default_index.connection.commit
+
+    puts 'Indexing edu.nyu Aardvark files...'
+    system "bundle exec sdr-cli index --directory=\"tmp/opengeometadata/edu.nyu/metadata-aardvark/**/*.json\" --solr_url=\"#{Settings.SOLR_URL}\""
+
+    puts 'Done!'
+  end
 end