Do you have access to Consumer Reports? How can I use it?
Thinking of making a purchase? Your library subscribes Consumer Reports, so you can research how to get the best deal on the right product.
Answer
Get started on making informed purchasing choices.
You do have to get Consumer Reports through our website. You won’t get the full benefits of the resource if you just go to consumerreports.com.
Remember to have your library card number and four digit PIN handy.
Go to carnegielibrary.org. Once you’re on our homepage, type “Consumer Reports” into the main search box. Click on “Consumer Reports” in the results list and enter your library card number and PIN when prompted.
You’re in! You can see on the homepage that there are news articles and a list of products that they’ve tested in their labs. What you don’t see are a bunch of targeted ads and clickbait like you’d see on the open web. That’s a sign that Consumer Reports contains information you can rely on.
Type in the kind of product you’re looking for into the search box at the top of the screen and hit enter. Here, we’re using cell phones as an example:
The results page offers you several categories of products to research. We’ll select ”Smartphones”:
The next page is where the good stuff is. Smartphones are listed according to their Consumer Reports score. You can see a small picture of the phone, the make and model, the price, as well as a short list of categories that make up the score.
Here, the highest-rated smartphone is $1300! Hahaha, nope! If you want to search within your price range, you can do so by using the buttons at the top of the screen to personalize your search. There are different options there such as “Brand” and “Rated Best For”, so be sure to explore those as well. Here, we’re refining the price by clicking the “Price” button and setting it to a maximum of $500. Click “Apply” to see the revised results:
Once you’ve reached your revised results page, you can click on a smartphone that matches your needs. Here’s the updated results; let’s choose the Samsung A50 that costs $350:
Here is the phone’s review page, a more in-depth review called the Ratings Scorecard. There are a variety of test result rankings, Highs and Lows (pros and cons), a brief statement, and then a thorough evaluation of the product. Be sure to scroll around, there’s lots of useful information!
That’s how to navigate through Consumer Reports, whether you’re looking for a new cell phone, a blender, a new credit card company, a home speaker system, and so much more.
In addition to providing you with the best product information to make informed buying choices, Consumer Reports also has a function that can help you buy at the right time!
Back on the homepage, take a look at the “Best time to buy” option in the box labelled “Welcome back, Library+User.” Look for the little calendar icon.
That will take you to an alphabetically organized list of products. I’m writing this in October, so I can see that this month is a good month to purchase chainsaws, leaf blowers, mattresses, and more. You can also see that April, May, and September are also good months to buy a chainsaw:
Since we were searching for smartphones, I’ll click Cell Phones & Services. You can see that I might want to hold off on that new purchase, as the best time to buy a new phone is February, September, and December:
There’s a lot more you can do with our Consumer Reports database, but hopefully this is enough to get you started. We all work hard for our money. The library is here to help you make the best-informed decisions based on research into reliable, unbiased information.
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