R1 supports EADM innovation with EndNote library

WASHINGTON, DC

—The goal of the Environmental Analysis and Decision-Making effort is to increase the diversity, health, resilience, and productivity of our national forests and grasslands. The Forest Service aims to meet the goal by reducing the time and cost of project and planning analysis and decision-making. Region 1 is stepping up to help meet the EADM goal with an innovative region-wide project to compile and catalog more than 12,000 references in an EndNote library. EndNote is a management software that stores a reference library in a cloud-based platform to allow users easy access when they work in Microsoft Word.

What started as an idea to organize and catalog references during forest plan revision on just the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest has morphed into a regional effort to use EndNote to efficiently and effectively track thousands of scientific papers, forest plans, maps and multiple types of references.

The library is searchable, helps automatically create a bibliography, and has a “cite while you write” feature. Resource specialists save time formatting their reports, preparing a bibliography and gathering reference documents for the project record. At the same time, every specialist has access to the best available science at their fingertips. The library is managed by a regional office “librarian” who provides training, grants access, and works with unit librarians to facilitate use.

The project started in 2014, when the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest partnered with Tetratech to help build the library for its forest plan revision effort. Several project teams are currently using the regional EndNote library and are already recognizing efficiencies. The region will continue to encourage and provide training in the use of EndNote by NEPA planning teams to realize efficiencies in both time and cost.

For more information, contact Karen Dunlap.