Before making that purchase, better visit this site: Buzzillions captures product reviews from retail sites and puts them together, so you don't have to visit individual sites to read what actual purchasers have to say.

Buzzillions

www.buzzillions.com

For those of you who do extensive research before a purchase (we know who we are), here's a site that will save you some time in your quest. Buzzillions captures product reviews from retail sites and puts them together, so you don't have to visit individual sites to read what actual purchasers have to say. In addition to the reviews, Buzzillions posts a "Review Snapshot" that summarizes the pros, cons and what have been identified as the best uses for the products. The site also offers side-by-side com-parisons; product ranking; a "narrow" tool that lets you drill down by brand, price and other product features; links to retailers; and, for some product categories, the ability to see reviews by the reviewer's personality type.

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Ideal Bite

www.idealbite.com

Need a few "bite-sized ideas for light green living"? Look no further. The creators of ideal Bite are trying to help busy people be green(er) with the philosophy that the small changes we make really do make a difference. Green tips areavailable throughout the Web site and come to you daily by e-mail (mysteriously, there's no RSS feed). The tips and promoted products are chosen based on several criteria, including reasonable pricing, recycled and recyclable materials, and lack of animal testing or toxins. You can save your favorite "bites" on the site, rate them, and forward them to others. There are even tips that are specific to some large U.S. cities, the United Kingdom and Canada. And, in the spirit of these social times, you can read more helpful information on the blog, make suggestions about your own finds and offer tips.

SLA Chapter and Division Idea Banks

http://wiki.sla.org/display/CIBWiki/Home+Page

http://wiki.sla.org/display/DIVIDEA/Welcome+to+the+SLA+Division+Idea+Bank%2521

Chapter and division leaders have been invited to contribute to these wiki-based idea banks so that best policies, practices, and activities can be shared among the SLA community. Even non-leasers can learn from the posts, which fall under many different categories. Planning a celebration? Need some marketing inspiration? Read about these topics, as well as mentoring programs,newsletters (many now blogs), membership development, marketing, vendor relations, monthly meeting programming and fundraising. If you haven't wikied before, there's a helpful Wikis 101 tutorial to get you started (http://wiki.sla.org/display/CEWIKI/Wikis+101+Home).

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7 Things You Should Know

www.educasue.edu/7ThingsYouShouldKnowAboutSeries/7495

From the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative, "7 Things You Should Know" is a series that presents technology topics and practices in the context of teaching and learning. Each resource is assigned topic headings and accompanied by a brief abstract. The full document, which reminds me of a brochure, answers questions about the technology/subject area: what it is, who uses it, how it works, why it's important, challenges for use, future prospects, and implications for education. New topics are added to the site each month, and the archive goes back to 2005. Some of the more recent areas explored include: Second Life, Zotero, Ning, Lulu and geolocation. You'll also find information on Facebook (in two parts), Creative Commons, citizen journalism and screencasting.

BY CAROLYN J. SOSNOWSKI, MLIS 

CAROLYN J. SOSNOWSKI, MLIS, is SLA's information specialist. She has 10 years of experience in libraries, including more than four years in SLA's Information Center. She can be reached at [e-mail].

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