Finger pointing to library cards

Hamilton Libraries

Membership of Hamilton City Libraries is free to residents/ratepayers of Hamilton City Council.

Residents/ratepayers of Waikato District who live close to the Hamilton City border may also be eligible for free membership — more information.

Other paid membership options are available for non-residents/ratepayers or visitors to Hamilton — please get in touch with us for further details.

Corporate memberships are also available.

Staff helping customer

Joining in Person

You may join at any of our seven libraries. Joining one library gives you access to all our libraries but before you receive full borrowing privileges you will need to provide personal identification, proof of address and sign your library card.

Joining Online

You may join using the online form after reading and accepting the membership conditions. Once you've completed the online form, you'll be given a temporary membership number that you can use when reserving items in the catalogue. Before receiving full borrowing privileges, you'll need to visit one of our libraries within 2 weeks, show your personal identification, proof of address and sign your library card.

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Waikato District residents (or ratepayers) living close to the Hamilton City boundary may also be eligible for free library membership, through an agreement between Waikato District Council and Hamilton City Council.

To find out if your address qualifies, please see the information on the Waikato District website, or contact us.

We offer subscription memberships for non-Hamilton residents or ratepayers. As a subscription member, you are entitled to use of our entire print collections, Digital Library and online resources.

There are two subscription membership options - Individual or Group. Individual membership can be purchased for 6 months or 1 year, and entitles you to a maximum of 50 items on issue at any one time.

A Group membership can be purchased for 6 months or 1 year, this entitles you to up to six library cards for your household per Group, and a maximum of 50 items on issue, per card, at any one time.

Please see our Fees and Charges for current Subscription Membership costs.

As a member you are responsible for:

  • Returning items by the due date.

  • All fees and charges on your account. 

  • Any loss, theft or damage that occurs to items while on loan to you.

  • Informing the library when your card is lost or stolen. 

  • Informing the library of any change of address or other contact details.

You will be entitled to a maximum of 50 items on issue at any one time.

Under 18 years:

  • Permission from a parent or legal guardian willing to accept all guarantor responsibilities is required. 

  • The guarantor agrees to accept responsibility for all fees, charges, and items.

Please note:

  • A guarantor's borrowing privileges are linked to those they are acting as guarantor for.

  • Suspension of borrowing rights and/or referral to a debt collection agency may occur to recover overdue items and charges on all cards you are responsible for.

  • The use by any person of any library service or facility must be for legal purposes, and must not result in a breach of copyright, breach of privacy rights, unauthorised alteration or deletion of data or website contents, unauthorised access to information or the access or transmission of illegal images or text.

  • Library memberships expire periodically (usually every two years, or sooner for specific membership types). You will be notified 30 days before your membership is due to expire - you can renew your membership by advising us of your current address and phone number.

Personal identification:

One form of current personal identification with your name on it. For example, a driver’s licence, passport, birth/marriage or civil union certificate, bankcard or credit card, Community Services card or official student ID card.

Proof of address:

An official document dated and mailed within the last two months stating your name and current residential address. For example, a tenancy agreement, bank statement, bills such as electricity, gas, telephone, rates or an address included on a current driver’s licence.

You will need to advise us of your address and contact phone number in order to renew your library membership when it expires. Memberships usually expire every two years, or sooner for specific membership types, and you will be notified 30 days before your library membership is due to expire.

We may contact you via email to advise of essential information relating to your library membership, such as library service disruptions or overdue reminders. Some of these notices are automated.

You may also opt-in to a range of library newsletters relating to your interests.

Legitimate library notices/newsletters may come from the following addresses. Please ensure they are added to your contacts to reduce the risk of important information going into your junk mail folder.

  • hamilton.city [at] library.kotui.nz

  • noreply [at] kotui.org.nz or no-reply [at] kotui.org.nz

  • info [at] hamiltoncitylibraries.patronpoint-mail3.com

Library staff may also contact you directly if required, using email addresses ending in @hcc.govt.nz.

You may choose to receive SMS notifications about overdue items and/or available holds. More information on how to set this up.

If you do not wish to receive any email communication from us, please ask us to remove your email address from your account. We will instead advise you about overdue items and available holds by post, unless you have opted into SMS notifications.

Hamilton City Libraries is a unit of Hamilton City Council. Your privacy is important to us. “We”, “our” or “us” means Hamilton City Council in the statement below. 

We may update this statement from time to time.

What information we collect
By becoming a member, you agree to provide personal information to us, including your name, contact details and date of birth. We may collect other personal information in any correspondence we have with you.

How we will use your information
We use your personal information:

  • To manage your membership, including processing your application, maintaining your records, advising you of overdue or requested items, recovering outstanding fines and debts and updating you on library services and events. 

  • To discuss any matters about your membership with your parent or legal guardian, if you are under 18 years of age.

  • To respond to your requests, enquiries or feedback, or for customer care related activities.

From time to time, we may contact you to seek your feedback on our services or facilities you have used. This will help us better understand who is using our services and facilities and how these can be improved. You can contact us if you don’t want to be included in these types of surveys.

Sharing your information
Besides our staff, we may disclose your personal information to:

  • Any of our service providers (including the provider that hosts our online application form), where your personal information helps us provide our services to you.  Our service providers must keep your personal information confidential.

  • Another person or organisation if we are required to do so under any law, or as part of legal proceedings or other investigations. This may include a debt collection agency to recover overdue materials and charges.

  • Any person to whom you authorise us to disclose your personal information (including your parent or legal guardian if you are under 18 years of age).

What if you do not provide us with the personal information requested?
If you do not provide us with the personal information that we request from you, we may not be able to complete your application, adequately respond to your requests or inquiries, provide the services or facilities you have requested or process payments on your behalf.

Accessing and correcting your personal information
If you’d like to ask for a copy of your personal information or to have it corrected, please contact us at hamiltoncitylibraries@hcc.govt.nz, 07 838 6826, or Hamilton City Libraries, 9 Garden Place, PO Box 933, Hamilton 3204, New Zealand.

Your rights to access, and correct, any personal information we hold about you, are subject to the Privacy Act 1993.

A copy of our full Privacy Statement can be found here.

You may join the library using the online form.