Library Journal, one of the most respected and widely read sources among librarians, recently reviewed Morningstar Investment Research Center.

The publication rewarded our database its "LJ Pick" designation. LJ gave Morningstar Investment Research Center three or more stars in the following database categories: Scope, Writing, Design, Bells and Whistles, Ease of Use, and Value. Our database ranked as a leader in the Writing and Ease of Use categories.

Carrie Scarr, reviewer and assistant director of West Fargo Public Library, says that Morningstar Investment Research Center is "one heck of a resource for investors." The Library Journal review can be found here.

Since the review, Morningstar Investment Research Center has expanded yet again, with the addition of a new investment primer and innovative ETF Quick Links.

This new investment primer, "The Morningstar Guide to International Investing," couldn't have come at a better time. As domestic markets grow increasingly sour, some investors are searching overseas for profitable foreign securities. We created this guide to empower individual investors with the knowledge needed to make international investment decisions.

The guide offers advice and direction with managing foreign security allocation, choosing foreign funds, and advice for finding domestic funds with foreign holdings. "The Morningstar Guide to International Investing" can be found with our other investment guides in the Help and Education section of Morningstar Investment Research Center. The Help and Education section can be quickly accessed from the homepage.

Quick is good, and time is money. In an effort to save our users time, and to further improve database navigation, we have added two new ETF Quick Links to Morningstar Investment Research Center's home page.

The first Quick Link allows users to sort ETFs by trading volume, so that they can see the most heavily traded ETFs. The second Quick Link allows users to view a list of ETFs that contain Morningstar analyst reports, which is sorted chronologically so that the most recent reports can easily be accessed. These Quick Links can be found under the ETF heading on the Morningstar Investment Research Center homepage.

I recently had the opportunity to speak with reference librarian Susan Caulfield of Newton Free Library. It was amazing to hear all of the different ways she and the Newton team are marketing Morningstar Investment Research Center.

Not only are they featuring databases monthly on the Newton Free Library Web site, not only are they having customized brochures printed monthly with a list of database subscriptions, not only are they demonstrating databases personally at financial library clubs--but they have even found the time to design, print, and display their own custom database bookmarks and posters.

A different database is featured each month on the Newton Free Library Web site. In February, the Newton team decided to feature Morningstar Investment Research Center. The featured database is located on the right-hand side of their homepage with a very large display, which stands out nicely. It is one of the first things you notice when you visit the homepage. Susan Caulfield and her colleagues realized this and decided to make the Newton Free Library Web site the start page on all 11 computers in the library. This allows all the patrons who use the computers to see the featured database. Caulfield had mentioned that usage "always spikes" when a database is featured.

This also makes it easier for patrons to discover the databases offered at the library. To further help with this common hurdle, the Newton Free Library team decided to have brochures printed with all current subscribed databases, Morningstar Investment Research Center included. The brochures are then placed around the library for patrons to take home.

Clubs, organizations, and seminars are common throughout libraries, but Newton Free Library decided to take it a step further. In one of their most recent clubs, "Retirement Planning Club for Women," the Newton staff demonstrated the Morningstar Investment Research Center database features to their patrons, which helped with both their marketing efforts and their patrons' financial goals.

But that's not all. The Newton Free Library Programs Office is in charge of designing and printing their own marketing material for their featured database. Recently, the Newton team designed Morningstar Investment Research Center bookmarks and posters. The programs office did a phenomenal job with graphics and content, and both the poster and bookmark look very professional and impressive. The bookmarks are placed at the reference desk, the circulation desk, and their business resource tables. Their effective posters are hung in the computer lab, near periodicals, and even in the bathrooms.

The lesson to be learned is that there is no one proper way to effectively market Morningstar Investment Research Center. Because your patrons vary in age, gender, and level of research background, the most effective tactic is a combination of tactics.

Visit the Client Site for posters, table tents, training announcements, and more.

If you would like further marketing ideas or material to help promote Morningstar Investment Research Center at your library, please do not hesitate to contact us at libraryservices@morningstar.com.

After this last year's brutal sell-off, it's likely that the equity component of your portfolio is but a shadow of its former self. If you've done nothing to your portfolio amid stocks' epic downturn over the past year, your asset mix is apt to look overly meek, not too aggressive. In turn, you'll confront a worst-of-all-worlds scenario. Having borne the full force of the bear market, your portfolio won't adequately participate when stocks eventually rebound.

If you've put off rebalancing because the process seems daunting to you, read on. The following step-by-step guide simplifies the process using tools on Morningstar Investment Research Center.

Step 1: Determine your asset-allocation targets.
Your first step in the rebalancing process is to make sure you have an asset-allocation framework. If you had a stock/bond target that made sense for you before the recent market downturn, it should still fit now. And if you don't have an asset-allocation plan, it's time to make sure you have one. My favorite "quick and dirty" method of getting in the right asset-allocation ballpark is to look at the asset allocations of target-date mutual funds geared toward individuals in your age range.

Of course, there are no one-size-fits-all asset-allocation solutions--none of us knows how long we'll live, for one thing. These funds also vary widely in their asset allocations and in their overall quality. But I still think the stock/bond mixes of the Vanguard Target (middle-of-the-road asset allocations) and T. Rowe Price Retirement funds (more aggressive asset allocations) can be a good starting point for your asset-allocation framework. The Web is also full of tools and questionnaires to help you with asset allocation.

Step 2: Find your current asset allocation.
After you've determined what your optimal asset allocation should be, it's time to take a look at where you are now. If you're like many people, you may have been moving your investment statements directly from the mailbox to your desk drawer, afraid to glimpse how much money you've lost. But it's time to pull all of those statements out and take a look, or go online for an even more current view of your portfolio. Focus not so much on your recent losses, but instead take note of your current asset allocation.

Keeping track of your portfolio's asset allocation by hand can be a bit cumbersome and inexact, particularly because most mutual funds aren't pure stock or bond. It's not uncommon for stock funds to hold double-digit cash stakes, for example. For the clearest possible read on your asset allocation, I recommend Morningstar Investment Research Center's X-Ray tools, which drill into each of your fund holdings to determine how they're allocated by asset class and investment style. See your current split among cash, U.S. and foreign stocks, bonds, and other. The X-Ray summary also depicts how your holdings are dispersed across the Morningstar Style Box.

Step 3: Identity candidates for tax-loss selling.
Before you begin altering your portfolio to put your asset allocation back in line with your targets, you also want to scout around for tax-loss candidates that you hold in your taxable accounts. If you're like most people, you won't have to look too hard to identify securities that are now priced more cheaply than what you paid for them.

Step 4: Formulate a rebalancing plan.
If your portfolio is in line with your target asset allocation and you're not making any inadvertent style or sector bets, your work is done.

Most likely, however, your analysis of your current asset allocation versus your targets indicates that your portfolio is light on stocks. At the same time, the securities that you've identified for tax-loss selling are also likely to be stocks and stock funds. If you're in the market for high-quality stock funds to consider for your portfolio, check out our list of Fund Analyst Recommendations. If individual stocks are part of your portfolio plan, you can also screen for those companies with high star ratings.

When it comes to deciding which securities to add, as well as how much to add to each, you'll probably find that the process of overhauling your portfolio is a matter of trial and error. Here again, I'd recommend Morningstar Investment Research Center's Portfolio X-Ray tool to help you evaluate the impact of various holdings on your asset-allocation mix before you decide to buy. Also, pay attention to the impact that various holdings have on your style-box positioning and sector weightings. Your stock portfolio doesn't need to be an exact clone of the broad market, but you should at least be aware of whether your portfolio is skewing heavily to one style or sector.

In some cases, the alterations you need to make are obvious--if you're heavy on bonds, for example, adding to stocks should resolve the problem. Getting to the bottom of other bets might take a little more research. For example, if your portfolio has more cash than you want it to, that could be because one of your stock-fund managers is holding a lot of cash. You could decide to live with it, and reduce your designated cash holdings accordingly, or else pare back your holdings in the cash-heavy stock fund.

It also pays to consider tax consequences when rebalancing. Conventional wisdom holds that you should concentrate your rebalancing efforts in your tax-sheltered accounts, because you won't have to pay capital gains tax if you determine you need to sell shares. That advice may be less relevant this year, given that many of your taxable holdings are well in the red and you won't face tax consequences if you need to unload something. Alternatively, you could try to correct your portfolio's imbalances not by selling but by directing a bigger share of future contributions to those holdings that need beefing up. In so doing, you'll save on tax and transaction costs.

Step 5: Plan to make a habit of it.
There are two ways to rebalance--either you can rebalance on a set schedule, say, every December, or you can rebalance whenever your portfolio gets dramatically out of whack with your targets. My advice is to split the difference. While I think it makes sense to give your portfolio a thorough review once a year, you don't want to get into the habit of trading too frequently. Schedule a top-to-bottom portfolio review at a fixed time each year, but rebalance only if your portfolio's allocations have gotten dramatically out of whack with your targets.

For the past six months I have been conducting a monthly training session for our clients via the Web. Many of you have attended and I thank you for that. You have made the sessions a great success.

This coming April I would like to build upon that experience and offer YOUR clients a virtual training session. That's right, a patron training session. Not only is this a chance to introduce the database to your patrons, it is also a chance to get the word out about your entire database collection.

I encourage you to promote the virtual training session in your library, community newspapers, quarterly newsletters, and on your Web site. The good news for you is that's all you have to do. We'll take care of the rest.

Within the Help & Education section of our database, there is a link patrons can use to register for the training session. Patrons can also register by sending an e-mail to librarytraining@morningstar.com. We will take the information, send the e-mail invitations, and run the session. This will be done over the Web, so your patrons can do this from home, in the office, or anywhere with access to a phone and Internet connection.

The session will take place on April 29, 2009, at 3:00pm Central Time. We feel this is an appropriate time for training, as it gives you time to get the word out to your community, and it will not conflict with tax season.

I hope we can work together to make this a successful program and build upon it to provide more education and instruction in the future. For that reason, I will also be collecting statistics so we can track the level of interest and compare which promotions work best.