Improving Technical Information Transfer from Science Labs

The USDA-Forest Service Forest Products Lab in Wisconsin improved the way technical information was being transferred to employees and the public. They increased the turn-around time for accurate scientific referrals by updating their mail and phone lists of people resources. They regularly manage and update their data banks and referral lists, keeping them user friendly and readily accessible. They provide research publications electronically, before the hard copies are printed or mailed, thereby requiring less printing, less paper, less storage space and reduced mailing costs. They developed fact sheets for the commonly asked technical questions, allowing quicker responses. The coup de grace of their improved delivery service is a series of nontechnical summaries of research projects targeted at the lay person.

(Wayne Hunt:S32A; USDA-Forest Service, Forest Products Lab, One Gifford Pinchot Drive, Madison, Wisconsin, 53705-2398; 608-231-9315.)