I am so excited to announce that library card-holders can now access databases (available through the library) from home. Go to the library's website (http://www.marshallpublib.org) and click on the menu bar under card catalog. Click on magazine/newspaper index.

The page that comes up will have a list of items, including EBSCOhost and Learning Express Library. EBSCOhost will allow you to search for newspaper and magazine articles.

Learning Express has a huge variety of sample tests -- from college exams to real estate licensing to EMT exams. And best of all, Learning Express will save your progress so you can go back over and over until you're finished.

All you need is your library card and your pin number. It's that simple!

Pin numbers can be obtained when you are in the library. For security reasons, phone requests for pin numbers are not permitted.

Those of you who couldn't make it to the author's program on Jan. 15 really missed a good show. I don't want to make you feel bad but W.L. Ripley is an extremely entertaining presenter who, by the end of the evening, had me believing I could write a book.

Thanks to the Missouri Valley College for providing the venue for such a wonderful program.

Check it out

Beginning this week, Bobbie is starting a new baby's laptime program. Our current laptime is for ages birth to 2 years old. Because of the wide range of development during those years, we will now have a baby's laptime for birth to 1 years old at 10 a.m. and another for 1-2 year olds at 10:45 a.m. on Wednesdays.

Circle of days

Tuesday, Jan. 29 at 2 p.m. -- Classic Book Club (Title: "She Poems")

New materials

Fiction

"Shadow Music" by Julie Garwood

"The Shooter" by W.E.B. Griffin

"Blood Dreams" by Kay Hooper

"Bleeding Kansas" by Sara Paretsky

Non-fiction

"Ten Years Thinner" by Christine Lydon, MD

"Boone: A Biography" by Robert Morgan