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Top Picks for Consumer Information

'Tis the Season
Web Sites for Consumers
Insurance Information
Shopping Comparisons
Product Review Websites
Consumer Information in SCLS Databases

'TIS THE SEASON

Christmas is a prime time for consumers. The sites below will help your patrons find and evaluate products, avoid fraud, and - maybe - manage their post-Christmas debt.

Some other seasonal consumer tips in the news recently include:

• people who originally signed up for the no-call list in 2002 need to renew their no-call status (it expires every two years). Visit https://nocall.wisconsin.gov/web/home.asp to find out how to renew for another two years.
  
  
• free credit reports are being offered in order to counteract concerns about identity theft. Reports for the western United States will be offered starting December 1 and reports for Wisconsin and neighboring states will be offered beginning March 1, 2005. The catch? You are authorizing the credit report companies to contact you with fee-based offers, too. Find out more at http://www.annualcreditreport.com
  
  
• check out the Better Business Bureau's Guide to Online Shopping Safety for holiday shopping at http://www.bbb.org/alerts/article.asp?ID=153
  
  
• choose what charities you'll give to this year after consulting the Better Business Bureau's Charity Reports at http://www.give.org/reports/index.asp

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WEB SITES FOR CONSUMERS

Better Business Bureau
http://www.bbb.org/
Wonder if a company or a charity is on the up and up? Check them out at the Better Business Bureau, where you can find if a company has a satisfactory rating from the Bureau along with other pertinent information. The BBB also offers a consumer-based e-newsletter and changing articles featuring tips for consumers. Other related sites include the Better Business Bureau Serving Wisconsin and the BBB's Guide to Charitable Giving, which reports on national charities.

Consumer Product Safety Commission
http://www.cpsc.gov/
Read news about consumer safety, the latest product recalls, and report an unsafe product on-line.

Consumer Reports
http://www.consumerreports.org/
Provides some free information from the popular publication, and some general tips. For indexing and text, EBSCO provides bibliographic records from 1985 to present and full text from January 1991(with a three-month delay). A companion site is the Consumers Union, http://www.consumersunion.org, which includes some information in Spanish.

Consumer World
http://www.consumerworld.org
The Librarian's Index to the Internet calls this "the most comprehensive directory of consumer products and information on the Web."

Energy Savers: A Consumer Guide to Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
http://www.eere.energy.gov/consumerinfo
Consumer fact sheets, tips, and criteria to look for when choosing products for your home, including appliances, lighting, making home improvements, landscaping, and new windows. Offered by the U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Division.

FirstGov for Consumers
http://www.consumer.gov
A clearinghouse of federal information for consumers, from managing money to nutrition to protecting children's privacy. Easy to navigate, and searchable. Less likely to review products and more likely to focus on consumer education.

Household Products Database
http://householdproducts.nlm.nih.gov
What's under your kitchen sink, in your garage, in your bathroom, and on the shelves in your laundry room? Find out what's in these products and what are the potential health effects, and other safety and handling information.

Identity Theft Resource Center
http://www.idtheftcenter.org/index.shtml
Information about what identity theft is and how to prevent it, from the Identity Theft Resource Center in San Diego, CA.

Recalls.gov
http://www.recalls.gov
Combined resources of six federal agencies to create a one-stop center for federal government recalls. Includes the ability to receive electronic newsletters and updates from individual agencies.

Sperling's Best Places
http://www.bestplaces.net/default.aspx
Compare over 3,000 U.S. cities in housing, costs of living, crime, education, economy, health and climate. Choose any two cities and see them displayed side-by-side. Wonderful for people who are considering a relocation.

Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection
http://datcp.state.wi.us/core/consumerinfo
Find information on alerts, recalls, consumer standards, tips on how to protect yourself against scams or poor service, or file a complaint against a Wisconsin business.

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INSURANCE INFORMATION

A.M. Best's Insurance Rankings
http://www.ambest.com
Ranks insurance companies that provide life, health, and property/casualty insurance on financial solvency and ability to pay debt. Requires free registration in order to view ratings.

Insure.com: The Consumer Insurance Guide
http://www.insure.com
Compare basic prices for auto, homeowner's, rental, dental, health, life, and travel insurance. Use this site as a starting point, but also consider more local options.

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SHOPPING COMPARISONS

BizRate Shopping Search
http://www.bizrate.com
Compare prices at hundreds of online stores for various products. Searchable by product or store, and browse-able by category.

Shopping.com
http://shopping.com
Compare prices and read reviews from other customers who have purchased or used the product. Browse the web site by category or search for a particular product or brand.

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PRODUCT REVIEW WEBSITES

ConsumerReview
http://www.consumerreview.com
A commercial site focused on reviews of outdoor equipment and electronic equipment, including stereos, video games, computers and more.

Consumer Search
http://www.consumersearch.com/www
This site both rates individual products in many consumer categories - from baby gear to software to kitchen electronics - and provides full text of review articles on various products, then rates the review articles. A very comprehensive site, and not as commercial as some others.

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CONSUMER INFORMATION IN SCLS DATABASES

In addition to Consumer Reports content and indexing, you can find product reviews and many other consumer-related articles in EBSCOhost, primarily the MasterFILE Premier database. For example, a general search on "digital cameras" will find not only reviews, but tips on how to buy digital cameras, new ones on the market, and - most likely - lots of other extraneous stuff, sometimes from a source you wouldn't think of.

One way to limit a general search specifically to product reviews is to choose the "Advanced Search" tab.
Then, enter your product. Scroll down, and choose the desired criteria from the "Document Type" box, then choose "Product Review."

In addition, the Health Source - Consumer Edition database offers consumer-oriented information on health issues, such as medications, medical procedures, and health insurance. This database would be good for people looking to research a drug or condition without having to wade through overly scientific information that might be hard to understand. Similar information for prescription drugs, over-the-counter drugs, and herbal remedies can be found in a different EBSCO database, Clinical Pharmacology.

While EBSCO offers the most obvious match for consumer information, larger papers in ProQuest may also have some hard-to-find consumer information, product reviews, or tips on certain topics, particularly financial topics like mortgages and managing credit card debt.

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For more information about the Top Picks, contact Cheryl Becker.

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