If you haven’t been to your local library in a while, I recommend making a visit to see what they have to offer.

I popped into Speers Point Library last week to check out the new library catalogue system.

Coming from the era when a library user had to know their Dewey Decimal System and negotiate concertina rows of stacks if they wanted to find a book that wasn’t obviously on display, it’s marvellous to now be able to type the name of a book or author into a computer and be instantly fed a whole lot of information about your selection.

The new catalogue not only tells you if the book is in stock and where to find it, but offers reviews, recommends similar titles that you might like and provides lots of other complementary information.

The new features include saved search lists, personalised author and title suggestions, recurring reservations for magazines and many other advantages.

The new process makes it much easier – and much more fun – to find a good book.

While at the library, I ran into the Bluegum class from Speers Point Public School, who were participating in National Simultaneous Storytime, a fantastic program that encourages young Australians to read and enjoy books.

Children from all around the country sit down at the same time each week for a storytime reading. When I caught up with the Speers Point kids last week, they had just finished hearing a few pages of Hickory Dickory Dash by Tony Wilson.

Story time is offered at a number of Lake Mac Libraries. Contact your local branch for more details or to book in a group.

I also had the opportunity on the weekend to attend the opening of the Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery component of the Hunter Red exhibition, a collaboration between the Maitland, Newcastle and Lake Mac art galleries and The Lock Up in Newcastle.

Each of the four galleries has curated an exhibition on the overarching theme of ‘Hunter Red’ a nod to the glass of Hunter red as a symbolic tourism characteristic of our region.

Lake Macquarie’s interpretation of this theme manifests as Re(A)d Earth, an exhibition that explores the connection to country in Aboriginal Culture. This excellent exhibition is open until July 22.