I'll bet everyone knows that the library subscribes to most Consumer Reports publications and perhaps many of you know that we keep a reference copy of many years of the magazine and the Buyer's Guide at the Information Desk for use at any time. There is an 8-year index of the items that have been rated at the back of the Buyer's Guide and a one year index at the back of each month's publication that make it handy to use the archives. But have you also thought about other consumer information that the library makes available that is not so obvious?
Under Databases, on our homepage at www.sbpl.info, we have links to indexes to a lot of publications like magazines and newspapers and most of them are full-text. One of the most complete is EBSCOHost or EBSCO Masterfile that provides full-text articles from over 1700 publications as far back as 1975. Doing a search about the item you are interested in getting reviews for can help you find information about things that CR has not reviewed or not reviewed lately. Other publications know how popular consumer information is and are frequently doing their version of the "ten best."
These database searches are great for making purchasing decisions about consumer goods, getting health information and doctor ratings, and getting travel information to name a few. All of this can be searched from home on our website. Remember to have your South Brunswick Library card handy; you will be asked to enter your barcode number to gain access to the databases. Happy hunting!