Bookmobile Service Modifications

Huntington Park is discontinued effective after tomorrow, Friday, September 5 (11 am-noon). A new, nearby bi-weekly Bookmobile site at The Court at Rushdale (1360 Upper Sherman Ave) will start on Friday, September 19 (11 am-noon).

Queen Victoria Elementary School will now visit from 3-4 pm (instead of 3:30-4:30 pm

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Affected Branch: Bookmobile
Nearest Branches: 
Bookmobile Stop: 
Published:
Thursday, September 4, 2025 - 1:30pm
Study Halls Return September 2

Study Halls at Central Library and Dundas, Red Hill, Terryberry, Turner Park, Valley Park, and Waterdown branches resume on Tuesday, September 2. They will be open after-hours Mondays-Thursdays from 8 pm to Midnight. www.hpl.ca/study-halls 

All Branches and Bookmobile Stops
Published:
Wednesday, August 27, 2025 - 2:15pm
Carlisle Branch Accessible Door Out of Order

The accessibility door at Carlisle Branch is not working. We aim to fix it quickly.

Published:
Tuesday, August 26, 2025 - 10:15am
Turner Park - Rymal Road Entrance Unavailable

The Rymal Road entrance to the facility will be unavailable today due to an event at the YMCA. Access to the parking lot, accessible parking spaces, back entrance, and external drop box remains available. Thank you for your patience.

Published:
Wednesday, August 20, 2025 - 2:30pm
Kenilworth Branch - Temporary Closure (Sept 2 - Oct 10)

Due to roof repair maintenance, the Branch is temporarily closed from September 2 until October 10. Please visit the Red Hill, Parkdale, and Barton locations as your nearest branches for your library needs. On August 28-29, there may be some noise disruptions and limited parking spots while the roof repair set-up begins. Thank you for your patience.

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Published:
Monday, August 11, 2025 - 8:00am

Collections Policy

Selection

Items are selected:

  • to meet the recreational needs and interests of the community
  • to enrich human understanding by celebrating the diversity of our community through inclusion of various cultural, ethnic, religious and philosophical background
  • to educate and support lifelong learning
  • to recognize and accommodate a range of education levels and abilities
  • to inspire a love of reading, learning and creativity
  • to collect and preserve materials which illustrate the growth and development of the City of Hamilton, that celebrate its history and heritage or that pertain in whole or in part to activities within the geographic boundaries of the City of Hamilton

Criteria for Selection of Materials:

  • suitability of physical and/or digital form for library use
  • relation to existing collections and other materials on a subject
  • accessibility of materials in other libraries, for free via the internet, or from other easily and freely accessible resources
  • interests and composition of the community
  • popular and/or anticipated demand and current trends
  • attention of critics, reviewers, and the public
  • quality, clarity, comprehensiveness and accuracy of the work
  • reputation, skill, competence and purpose of the originator of the work
  • special value as a contribution to social questions and problems of continuing or topical interest
  • timeliness or permanence of the work
  • availability of funds and space
  • balance of viewpoints in the collection including those considered extreme or minority

An item need not meet all of the above criteria in order to be acceptable. Items that do not meet these criteria may be purchased to satisfy demand.  The Local History and Archives department will only accept material on a permanent basis, except when borrowing material for short-term loans to reproduce or to include in displays or exhibits.

Request for Removal of Items

The Hamilton Public Library recognizes the right of individuals to express opposition to author or artists’ ideas or to their creative expression in items selected for the library. While people have the right to reject for themselves items of which they do not approve, they do not have the right to restrict the freedom of others. The Hamilton Public Library is a resource where many points of view and modes of expression can be examined without hindrance. No ideas or opinions have universal acceptance and the use of language or visual depiction, either descriptive or expressive, can in itself stimulate controversy.

The Hamilton Public Library complies with any law enacted at the federal, provincial or municipal level, and therefore does not collect or maintain items which have been judged obscene or pornographic, or have been banned by the courts. The relevant sections of the Criminal Code of Canada are: sedition, hate propaganda and obscenity.

The presence of an item in the collection does not indicate an endorsement of its contents by the Hamilton Public Library, but rather is an affirmation of the principle of intellectual freedom as embodied in the Canadian Federation of Library Associations’ Position Statement on Intellectual Freedom and Libraries.

The following will not cause an item to be automatically included or excluded from the collection:

  • race, religion, nationality or political views of an author
  • frankness or coarseness of language
  • controversial content
  • endorsement or disapproval of an individual or group
  • language in which the work is written or spoken

If a customer feels that an item in our collection falls outside the criteria outlined in this policy, they are invited to complete a Resident Request for Reconsideration of Service form.