What a wonderful turnout we had for our ribbon cutting! It was especially nice to have the Duggins family represented by Molly Crews (and her daughter) and Kathleen Smith (and her husband and sons) as we revealed the newly renovated Maggie Duggins Genealogy Room. Thank you to all who were able to attend -- I know it's a busy time of year and many who wanted to be there were not able to. I welcome all of you to stop by the library and take a tour of the Genealogy and Meeting rooms. They look spectacular!

Summer Reading is going gangbusters. If you haven't had a chance to bring your children or grandchildren in to register, come on by! You can register anytime.

We have a couple of new material displays in the library since last week. Our Information Express stand is near the checkout desk and has items such as dictionaries, almanacs, atlas, zip code directories, and even an etiquette book for those of you looking for answers in a hurry.

We also have added a new type of item to our library--pre-downloaded audiobooks called Playaways. Unlike CDs and cassettes, these audiobooks come packaged with their own playing device--no machinery required. We have added a few titles and more will be coming soon.

Finally, we have a display featuring our storytelling audios. Do you like living history? Syd Fleischmann tells about the Dead Sea Scrolls on one of his CDs and about the founding fathers on another. We also have Donald Davis telling stories about growing up in the Appalachians during the 1950s and 60s. Please take the time to stop by and take a look.

On beyond Google

Sometimes I wish that I could find a list of websites on a particular subject -- websites that I know have been confirmed as reputable and sources of accurate information. Silly me -- of course someone has done that. And now you can access it too, at the library with our eThemes database. eThemes is an extensive database of content-rich, age-appropriate resources organized around specific themes. These resources are created for educators to use in their classrooms. But please don't think they are only for teachers or for students. There is a cornucopia of information to be found here--topics are even broken by under headings. For example, Egypt: Ancient Culture, Egypt: Modern Culture, Egypt: Pyramids. And if you can't find it in the alphabetical list, it has a search option.

eThemes is provided to the Marshall Public Library through EBSCO by a subscription to MOREnet. More specifically, eThemes is a service of the HYPERLINK "http://www.emints.org" eMINTS National Center. eThemes resources are created and maintained by University of Missouri-Columbia College of Education staff and graduate students from the School of Information Science and Learning Technologies.

Check it out

Have questions about the new Medicare? Are you required to sign up this year? Come to the library at 4 pm on Thursday to get information and speak to a trained Primaris professional. Primaris serves as Missouri's Medicare Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) and provides health insurance counseling to seniors.

New materials

Fiction

"The Sleeping Doll" by Jeffrey Deaver

"The Gravedigger's Daughter" by Joyce Carol Oates

"Double Take" by Catherine Coulter

"A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini

Non-fiction

"At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA" by George Tenet

"It Ain't All About the Cookin'" by Paula Deen

"Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life" by Barbara Kingsolver

Music CDs

"Vivaldi Concerti" -- Eliot Fisk

"Live From the Concertgebouw" -- Martha Argerich

"Tchaikovsky Symphony 6" -- Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra

Circle of days

Wednesday, June 13, at 7 p.m. -- Marshall Public Library Board of Trustees meeting.

Thursday, June 14, at 4 p.m. -- Understanding the new Medicare regulations, presented by a Primaris representative.

Saturday, June 16, at 2 p.m. -- Pitch Party. Join us to play cards. Beginners welcome.

Tuesday, June 19, at 3:30 p.m. -- Summer Reading: Get A Clue About Egypt: Build a pyramid and make a mummy!