All HPL Branches are closed on Sunday, May 17. Bookmobile is off the road. Extended Access service is not available.
Regular service hours resume on Tuesday, May 19. Visit hpl.ca for our Virtual Branch.
All Branches Closed - Sunday, May 17
Published:
Monday, May 11, 2026 - 10:15am
All Branches Closed - Victoria Day, Monday, May 18
All HPL Branches are closed on Monday, May 18. Bookmobile is off the road. Extended Access and Study Hall services are not available. Regular service hours resume on Tuesday, May 19.
Published:
Monday, May 11, 2026 - 10:15am
Bookmobile Service Modification
Due to Driver availability, Bookmobile has the following schedule modifications for the month of May. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Tuesday, May 12:
- Greencedar - Cancelled
- Mountview - Cancelled
Wednesday, May 13:
- Swansea - Cancelled
- Helen Detwiler - Cancelled
- Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum - Cancelled
Thursday, May 14:
- Rockton - Cancelled
- Mohawk Gardens - Cancelled
- Meadowlands - Cancelled
Monday, May 18: All Bookmobile sites closed
Published:
Monday, May 4, 2026 - 12:00pm
Software Maintenance - Victoria Day, Monday, May 18
Due to software maintenance, HPL library's catalogue, online services and library accounts will not be available between 9am and 7pm on Monday, May 18. Thank you for your patience.
Published:
Friday, April 24, 2026 - 9:00am
Central Library: Children's Area Renovation on 2nd Floor
Renovations are currently underway for the 2nd floor Central Children's Area. Programs are still being offered as scheduled and there is a temporary pop-up Children’s Area on the northeast side of the 2nd floor (near the Piano Room), including access to collections and train tables. Construction is expected to be completed by late Spring. Thank you for your patience during this time.
Published:
Monday, March 23, 2026 - 9:00am
Sherwood Branch: Renovations
As of Monday, March 2, Sherwood Branch's 2nd floor is closed due to renovations. Makerspace, Children and Teen's collection are temporarily available on the 1st floor. All programs will be held in the basement program room. Renovations are expected to be completed in late Spring. Thank you for your patience.
Published:
Tuesday, February 10, 2026 - 1:00pm
Hamilton Spectator Daily Negatives
Hamilton Spectator Daily Negatives
This lists the regular negatives held by Special Collection. These are the day to day negatives (Black & White and Colour) taken by Spectator photographers of people, places, events, etc. Each day the Spectator published, an envelope was created for that day. All the photographs used that day are noted on the front of the envelope (usually the description is rather vague: ie. "girl with dog"). The negatives taken by staff that were filed in the envelope are checked off. Photographs supplied by outside (ie. without a negative) will not be checked off. These could be photographs provided by stringers or picked up off one of the wire services. There are no negatives for these in the collection. Negatives that have been removed for any reason will usually have a notation next to them citing the reason for removal. Some of the citations will have the notation S File next to them. (see the section labelled "S File" for a detailed breakdown of our holdings). Except for the S Files noted in this finding aid we do not own any other of the S Files specified. They are still at the Spectator.
Colour negatives from 1964 to 1976 are stored in the same type of envelope as the Black & White negatives. As less colour was used, each envelope may contain several weeks or even months worth of colour negatives. On the outside of each envelope is noted the date a colour negative was used and a description of the subject. Colour negatives are filed at the end of each year of regular negatives. The Black & White negatives begin at July 28, 1955 and end at September 1990. Beginning with the negatives from September 5, 1987 the Black & White and Colour negatives are filed together. All negatives past the final dates listed are still held by the Hamilton Spectator. Following is a chronological listing of our holdings for both Black & White and colour negatives. This listing also notes gaps in the collection.
There is no index for these day to day files. In order to locate a specific negative for a patron they must be able to provide us with the date that the photograph appeared in the newspaper (day/month/year). Even if they have the exact date, there is no guarantee that the negative will be in the envelope marked for that day.
