The women's washroom at Ancaster Branch will be unavailable on April 15 while undergoing maintenance.
Printing is not working at Greensville Branch. We aim to fix it as soon as possible.
Renovations are expected to be completed by May 7. Construction repairs and noise may impact your next visit. Thank you for your understanding.
Due to maintenance and construction, Study Hall is cancelled on Thursdays, April 16 and 23 (8pm-Midnight). The parking lot will also not be available on Thursday, April 23 (10pm-5am) and Friday, April 24 (10pm-5am). We apologize for the inconvenience.
Due to Staff training, Mount Hope Branch will have a delayed opening of 2 pm on Monday, May 4. You may visit Turner Park Branch as the next nearest location for your library needs. Thank you for your patience.
Starting March 30, renovations for the 2nd floor Central Children's Area will begin. Programs will still be offered as scheduled and there will be 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. Thank you for your patience during this time.
Due to driver availability, Bookmobile is off the road for the following. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Thursday, April 16
- Rockton 10:30-11:30 am - Cancelled
- Mohawk Gardens 2:30-3 pm - Cancelled
- Meadowlands 3:30-4 pm - Cancelled
Tuesday, April 21
- Greencedar 5:30pm-6:30pm (instead of 4-5pm)
- Mountview 5:30-6:30 pm - Cancelled
Friday, April 24
- Winona 11 am-Noon - Cancelled
- Maplewood 2:30-4 pm - Cancelled
Tuesday, April 28
- McMaster 3:30-4:30 pm - Cancelled
Wednesday, April 29
- Swansea 10-10:30 am - Cancelled
- Helen Detwiler 11 am-Noon - Cancelled
- Warplane Museum 3-4 pm - Cancelled
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.
Hamilton Spectator Collection

In 1978, the Executive Editor of the Spectator newspaper arranged to begin transferring their reference files of photographic negatives and news clippings to Local History & Archives [then Special Collections]. The arrangement was that the Spectator would only hold the most recent five years worth of negatives and all negatives older than that would be transferred.
Over the years other material has been transferred including:
Hamilton Spectator Daily Negatives
The negatives taken by staff photographers for the daily edition of the newspaper. They are filed chronologically by the date the photograph appeared in the newspaper. There is no master index; therefore, to find the image required, you must know the day the photograph appeared in the newspaper. Many of these daily negatives have been printed and added to the mounted photograph collection by subject.
These files start in 1955 and continue until 1998 with gaps.
"S" Files
These are special negatives which were removed from the daily files because of special interest or subject matter, and filed separately by title (ie. Football, Politics, People, etc.) or date range.
Murdoch Collection Listing
From November 4, 1950 until August 28, 1965, Bruce Murdoch (ca1893-1966), a Spectator photographer, wrote and illustrated a weekly series of articles about small towns in Ontario. There is a complete index of this part of the collection.
Spectator Collection Antiquarian Photographs
40 antiquarian photographs (most late 19th and early 20th century) of Hamilton and area. All have been copied and added to the mounted picture collection.
Finding Aid: R019 HOU CESH







