City-Wide Outage, Library Service Impacted

HPL is recovering from the City of Hamilton's cybersecurity-related outage, which began Sunday February 25 and continues today, Friday November 8. Learn more.

Public computers are available at all branches.
Printing is available at all branches. Photocopying is available at all branches except for the Central, Concession, Dundas, and Terryberry branches. Scanning is not yet available.
Website log-in is available, access is restored to the catalogue, the HPL App is online, online eResources are available and Holds can be placed.
Public Wi-Fi is available at most branches except the Ancaster Branch.
Automatic check-ins are operating.
Makerspace services are available at select locations.

Contact Library Staff: call 289-779-7588, chat at hpl.ca, and email askus@hpl.ca. Branches are open. Check hpl.ca/events for program updates. Thank you for your patience.

Frequently Asked Questions | HPL

Publish Date:

Tuesday, October 29, 2024 - 8:00am

Notices

5

Central Library - Newcomer Learning Centre, Temporary Closure

From Wednesday, November 13 to Friday, November 15, the Newcomer Learning Centre will be closed due to off-site Staff training. The Centre will reopen on Monday, November 18.

www.hpl.ca/nlc

Publish Date:

Friday, November 8, 2024 - 1:00pm

Kenilworth Branch - Roof Repairs

From November 11 to 29, the parking lot may not be available at certain times of the day due to repair maintenance. There may also be some noise disruptions in the branch. Thank you for your understanding.

Affected Branch:

Kenilworth Branch

Publish Date:

Thursday, November 7, 2024 - 3:00pm

Mount Hope - Delayed Opening

Due to Staff training, the Mount Hope Branch will have a delayed opening of 2 pm on Wednesday, November 20. Please visit the Turner Park Branch as the next nearest location for your library needs.

Affected Branch:

Mount Hope Branch

Publish Date:

Tuesday, November 5, 2024 - 8:00am

Delayed Opening - Ancaster Branch

Due to Staff training, the Ancaster Branch will have a delayed opening of 10 am on Wednesday, November 20. Please visit the Dundas or Terryberry Branch as the next nearest locations for your library needs.

Affected Branch:

Ancaster Branch

Publish Date:

Tuesday, November 5, 2024 - 8:00am

Ending support for OverDrive's desktop apps and website MP3 downloads

On November 13, 2024, the MP3 audiobook format will be retired from HPL's OverDrive website and support for OverDrive's desktop apps for Windows and Mac (which only work with MP3 audiobooks) will not be available.

After this change, you can listen to audiobooks using the following options:

In Libby (available for Android, iOS, or Amazon Fire devices or at libbyapp.com in a web browser)
On HPL's OverDrive website using the Listen now in browser option
In the OverDrive app (only available in select countries)

Publish Date:

Monday, November 4, 2024 - 9:15am

Research Your House

New House in Westdale

Various sources can be used to document the history of a building. Except for well-known Hamilton-area homes, most do not have a ready-made history to consult. Therefore, the researcher must construct a history from scratch using available sources. This process can take time, and unfortunately, some properties may have very few, if any, historical records.

Local History and Archives contains various potentially useful resources to research houses. These records include:

Telephone Directories

These directories show names, addresses and telephone numbers for the Hamilton-Wentworth region.

City Directories

Researchers and genealogists use city directories to trace individuals, families and businesses. They usually include an alphabetical listing of adult residents, with their occupations and addresses.

Assessment Records

Tax assessment records help accurately date a building's construction and disclose its original owner and list of occupants.

Land Registry Records

These records detail the chain of ownership of a property using plan and lot number.

Maps

Local History and Archives has several large scale maps that show the shape, size and exact location of individual buildings.

Historical Photographs

If your building was known by a name in addition to its address, you can search under that heading in our card catalogue. In the Local History and Archives reading room, check the Where-to-Look card catalogue under Hamilton – Street Address and Number or Hamilton – Name of house for a citation to the Image Collection. You can also check photographs of the street the house is located on to see if your building is shown.

There are also specialized finding aids for other collections available in Local History and Archives.

To obtain more information about the people associated with the building, you may wish to check family papers, clipping files, census returns, genealogical indexes, funeral home indexes, cemetery indexes, promotional booklets, photographs, local publications and other sources within Local History and Archives.

Check in the Where-to-Look under the surname or ask for assistance at the Local History and Archives Information Desk.

There are also invaluable records that can be requested through the City of Hamilton's Property Record Search and through the Ontario Land Registry (OnLand).