• Evaluating particular types of information – give the groups a type of information source to look at (say an academic article) and discuss their strengths and weaknesses.

• Creating lists of keywords for a search.

• Pulling together a number of things that have caused problems in their information searching. You can then take these and work with them over the rest of the session.

• tiered lecture theatres, as people can turn around and talk to those above them in the tier

• sharing experiences and opinions

• getting contributions from all group members.

• Ask the pairs to write down their thoughts and then pass them to another pair for discussion and comment. They add their comments to the paper and it is passed on to another group.

• Ask learners to come up with three things that drive them mad about the library or three things that have frustrated them about finding information. They will need to restrict the list to three items in order to negotiate with the other pairs when they combine, but this can give you some really useful information about your services or about the knowledge level of your learners.

• It can be easy for the groups to lose focus as they join up, especially if they are not familiar with one another – they will need to introduce themselves and/or overcome any shyness about sharing before they can start work each time. There is also likely to be a lot of repetition when groups join together. Set clear instructions on how the buzz groups should work and impose quite tight time constraints on each element.