  Modern sky surveys, such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the Two-Micron
All Sky Survey, have revolutionized the study of low-mass stars. With millions
of photometric and spectroscopic observations, intrinsic stellar properties can
be studied with unprecedented statistical significance. Low-mass stars dominate
the local Milky Way and are ideal tracers of the Galactic potential and the
thin and thick disks. Recent efforts, driven by SDSS observations, have sought
to place the local low-mass stellar population in a broader Galactic context. I
highlight a recent measurement of the luminosity and mass functions of M
dwarfs, using a new technique optimized for large surveys. Starting with SDSS
photometry, the field luminosity function and local Galactic structure are
measured simultaneously. The sample size used to estimate the LF is nearly
three orders of magnitude larger than any previous study, offering a definitive
measurement of this quantity. The observed LF is transformed into a mass
function and compared to previous studies. Ongoing investigations employing M
dwarfs as tracers of Galactic kinematics are also discussed. SDSS spectroscopy
has produced databases containing tens of thousands of low-mass stars, forming
a powerful probe of the kinematic structure of the Milky Way. SDSS
spectroscopic studies are complemented by large proper motion surveys, which
have uncovered thousands of common proper motion binaries containing low-mass
stars. Additionally, the SDSS spectroscopic data explore the intrinsic
properties of M dwarfs, including metallicity and magnetic activity. The
highlighted projects demonstrate the advantages and problems with using large
data sets and will pave the way for studies with next-generation surveys, such
as PanSTARRS and LSST.
