Website helps hunters plan Montana hunt

by Montana Living

The Montana State Library and Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks announced the launch of a new website designed to assist hunters find the basic information they need for a successful hunting season. The “Hunting Companion” can be found at http://msl.mt.gov/hunting.

The website was developed in part to assist Montana’s librarians as they field requests from hunters in libraries across the state. The “Hunting Companion” is a streamlined access point for the basic information every hunter needs for a successful hunt.

“Librarians around the state are reporting an increased need from their patrons for information on Montana’s geography and natural resources,” said Jennie Stapp, Chief Information Officer and Digital Library Director at the Montana State Library. “That information is often found in multiple sources, including the websites from multiple state and federal agencies. By sifting through all of the information that is available from many different sources, we were able to locate the resources that every hunter needs for a safe and successful hunting season and make it available in one easy-to-access site.”

The “Hunting Companion” is designed to provide answers to four questions that hunters ask, including:
•      What can I hunt?
•      When can I hunt?
•      Where can I hunt? and
•      How do I hunt?

The “Hunting Companion” site has an easy-to-use interface and simplistic design and provides information from resources ranging from Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, the Montana Base Map Service Center, and the Montana State Library.

“Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks is pleased to be able to work with the Montana State Library to provide another access point to information about hunting in Montana,” said Thomas Baumeister, the State Education and Human Dimension Program Manager at MT FWP.

The Hunting Companion is the first website to go live as part of a large project by the Montana State Library that will condense all of Montana’s most important geographic and natural resources information and make it available in easy-to-access subject guides, such as hunting, fishing, mining, water resources, and farming and ranching.

“As librarians, our goal is to help people find what they need so they can move forward with their lives, whether that’s planning a successful hunt or finding the next birding location for a weekend outing,” said Stapp. “These subject guides will prove to be tremendously helpful to Montanans looking for a wide range of information about Montana’s geography and natural resources.”

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