With the Steel Town Love special event taking place on Saturday, July 11, the Fourth Floor at Central Library will be closed for set-up all day on Friday, July 10. Makerspace and Newcomer Learning Centre will remain open.
The Fourth Floor will reopen its study spaces on Sunday, July 12, Noon-5 pm.
As of July 1st, partner library Members can no longer borrow HPL Express items via Overdrive. More to Borrow partner libraries will be offering Lucky Express (Skip the line) titles to their cardholders only. This will help manage wait times for popular titles. Lucky Express is a collection of in demand titles with a seven-day loan period, available with no wait.
Our partners will still be able to borrow titles from the rest of our collection.
www.hpl.ca/more-to-borrow
The What's Happening Guide has been retired and replaced with different communications channels and tactics. You can find the new Summer Reading Flyer here. Watch for future communications updates.
Sunday hours return to Central Library. Beginning July 5, Central is open Noon to 5pm. Dundas, Red Hill, Terryberry, Turner Park, Valley Park and Waterdown branches are also open Sundays, 1 to 5pm. hpl.ca/hours
The accessibility door at Carlisle Branch is not working. We aim to fix it quickly.
After Hours Study Hall is not available in July and August. Hours will resume Tuesday, September 8. www.hpl.ca/study-halls
The entrance to the Barton Branch's parking lot off Milton Street is currently inaccessible due to construction. Please use the alley entrance off Fullerton Street.
Please be aware of online phishing attempts impersonating Hamilton Public Library and Library Staff. HPL does not solicit paid freelance opportunities through social media or other messaging applications. HPL does not request personal or banking information through social media or require financial compensation when reviewing job applications. Please report phishing schemes to communications@hpl.ca. If you think you are a victim of fraud, please call the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre at 1-888-495-8501.
Bookmobile Service Modifications
Wed, July 8:
Helen Detwiler Cancelled
Thurs, July 9:
Rockton Cancelled
Millgrove Cancelled
Bennetto Cancelled
Kinsmen Cancelled
One of the problems facing the council in considering the possibility of building a new City Hall was where to put it. Many sites were suggested. The most prominent was Faludi’s Civic Centre, which suggested the City Hall be built on the block east of the Court House. The annex on stilts, proposed by Mayor Lloyd D. Jackson, proposed an annex over the market to be linked with the city hall proper by an elevated walkway "which was later to go down in history as the ill-fated "bridge of sighs". Another of Mayor Jackson's ideas was to expropriate the Lister Building. As they moved towards expropriation it was explained that steps were being taken to "freeze the price" of the five storey office building (56). Not surprisingly the tenants of the Lister Building were less than thrilled at the prospect. "The Chief Magistrate lashed out at the tenants, stating publicly that "[c]ivic business is more important than private business". The Mayor felt the annex should be close to city hall: "[n]o further away than across the street, even if to obtain [the] same, some tenants in the present buildings are inconvenienced. This is civic business; [it] is most important and should have top priority" (57). The idea was brought to an abrupt halt, to the relief of the tenants, when council voted 12 - 9 against expropriation (56). Other suggestions included renting space from Coppley, Noyes and Randall or in the Empire Building, or relocating to the site of the old Y.M.C.A. or old Central Collegiate (56).
1950 arrived with a prophecy that "it is becoming apparent that our City Hall controversy is to go on interminably until all of this generation is dead and buried" (57). The annex on stilts enjoyed a brief renaissance but the Civic Centre proposal for the Prince's Square area was the increasingly popular choice. On the other most popular site, the old H.C.C.I. grounds, Alderman MacDonald envisaged "...a city hall in the style of the U.N. secretariat, nine stories high at its loftiest height and costing between $1,250,000 and $1,500,000". The newspapers described the debate following these proposals as "whimsical" (58). In October of 1950 a special committee recommended the hall be built either on the H.C.C.I. grounds or on Prince's Square. In 1951 the City Planning commissioner recommended that an American expert be imported to determine the best site. Mayor Jackson's response to this was "eye-wash" (58). In 1952 various other sites were proposed by the Mayor including York Street west of Macnab, west of the Hamilton Public Library on Main Street to the lumberyard, south on Jackson to Hunter in the John Street area or north of the new Hydro building at John and Rebecca.
