Membership

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.

To update the contact details on your library account, please fill out this form.

To close your library account, please fill out this form.