Cold Weather Alert for the City of Hamilton

Cold Weather Alert for the City of Hamilton Monday January 19, 2026.

The temperature is expected to plummet below minus 15 Celsius. For warm place hours visit hpl.ca/hours

For a list of shelters and health information visit www.hamilton.ca/cold

Published:
Monday, January 19, 2026 - 4:00pm
Central Library – Digital Microfilm Machines

The digital microfilm machines at Central Library are not working. A single analog machine is available in the Local History and Archives Reading Room. This reader does not support printing. We apologize for the inconvenience and aim to have the digital devices repaired as soon as possible.

Published:
Monday, January 19, 2026 - 1:45pm
Online Resources - Update

The following eResources have been recently discontinued in our HPL collections: Novelist, Summa, Summa Kids, and Northstar Digital Literacy. Please visit www.hpl.ca/articles/read-watch-listen for our full listing of online resources for your next read, watch, listen and/or learn.

Published:
Wednesday, January 7, 2026 - 11:00am
Waterdown Branch Accessible Door Out of Order

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

Published:
Tuesday, December 30, 2025 - 12:00pm
Printing Updates

Daily print balances for black and white and colour printing change January 2, 2026. The new daily print balance is 40 cents. Members receive four free black and white copies or two free colour copies. 

Large format and vinyl printing pricing also change on January 2. Visit https://www.hpl.ca/makerspaces for updates.

Published:
Monday, December 22, 2025 - 2:00pm
Replacement and Damage Fees

Bring back your borrowed library items within 28 days to avoid a replacement or lost fee. We'll remove the fee when you bring back your overdue items. 

Published:
Thursday, September 11, 2025 - 3:00pm

Discovery Space

graphic of kids with text discovery space

Explore. Discover. Learn. Visit.

Discovery Space is currently closed. Expected reopening is unknown at this time.

Discovery Spaces are fun, hands-on learning spaces created for you and your child to explore and enjoy STREAM (Science, Technology, Reading, Engineering, Art and Math) activities together.

Explore.

Research shows visiting a public library as a child is a wonderful and easy way to nurture a lifelong love of reading and learning. The more kids read, the more successful they are in school and in life.

For every DIscovery Space theme, you can access a list of great books to borrow from our collections.

Discover.

Play. The art of play helps children put thoughts and words together and connect spoken and written words with real objects and experiences.

Explore. Kids are natural explorers. At the Library, our goal is to nurture curiosity and wonder.

Explore our Discovery Spaces and have fun completing the activity sheets and engaging hands-on, creative activities. Each space has a unique theme and invites families to explore, discover and learn together.

Local History & Archives. To celebrate the City of Hamilton and all our diverse communities, we've included images from the Local History & Archives (LH&A) collection in our Discovery Spaces. LH&A has thousands of historic images of Hamilton available online.

Learn. 

Discovery Spaces use STREAM (Science, Technology, Reading, Engineering, Art and Math) activities to explore, discover and learn. 

moleculeScience activities use experiments to look at our natural environment and space.computerTechnology activities focus on digital literacy, robotics and coding by exploring simple machinesbook Reading activities explore and writing through basic literacy skillscogs and pencil Engineering activities look at understanding space, planning and design structures and movements.drama masksArts activities celebrate culture and creativity through music, storytelling and visual arts.various computations symbolsMath activities use shapes, patterns and counting to make numeracy fun.

Visit.

Discovery Spaces are designed to be inclusive of developmentally appropriate activities for kids (birth - 12 years) that support the development of literacy, learning, and motor and cognitive skills.

Each Discovery Space has a theme that highlights Hamilton's history, culture or natural environment. Themes rotate regularly across branches, with new ones always being added. 

Discovery Spaces are available at the following branches and each branch has a different theme:

  • Central Library - Storytelling & Theatre
  • Dundas - Health Sciences
  • Red Hill - Sports
  • Sherwood - Natural Environment  
  • Turner Park - Market
  • Waterdown - Manufacturing

Discovery Spaces are open when the branch is open.