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Browse our catalogueWith more than 400,000 physical lending and reference items on offer, we provide you with access to a great range of books, DVDs, archives, magazines, and newspapers.
Borrowable items are issued to members for 28 days (excluding magazines and junior DVDs, which are issued for 7 days; and Library of Things items and Best Sellers, which are issued for 14 days). An item normally stays at the library where it was returned until it is borrowed again. This way, new stock moves around the libraries, ensuring that each library has a constantly changing and updated collection.
Search our collections
Browse our catalogue
Children's collection
For children, in addition to our story and non-fiction books, we have puzzles, DVDs, CDs, magazines, board books for babies, readers, talking books, graphic novels, eBooks, eAudiobooks and eMagazines.
Children's collections
DVDs
The Adult DVD collection ranges from popular blockbuster films, music, art house, TV series, through to practical health, hobby and travel guides.
DVD collection
Library of Things - He Kohikohinga Taonga
Think of all the things you could do if you only had a tool kit or a sewing machine. The Library of Things is all about taking the time to learn something new or to dust off an existing skill or maybe even gain a new hobby.
Library of Things collection
Magazines
Our magazine collection covers a wide range of titles, from Apollo and Car to Your Home and Garden. Most magazines are free to borrow and back issues of Pay Magazines become free after four months use.
Magazine collection
Graphic Novels
The Adult collection also include graphic novels with over 1,000 titles available for lending.
Adult Graphic novels
Teens collection
For teens, as well as fiction and non-fiction titles, we have magazines, talking books, graphic novels, eBooks, eAudiobooks and eMagazines.
Teens collections
World Languages
Our World Languages collection contains over 3,000 books for adults and hundreds of children's books in over 30 different languages. The largest collections are Chinese, Korean and Japanese. We have magazines in Chinese, Hindi, Tamil and Korean.
Browse world language collection
Audiobooks
Keen on listening to a thrilling novel on your way to the dentist? Keen for an adventure while lying in bed? We offer a large audiobook collection which will appeal to many people and particularly those who find it difficult to read traditional books due to sight impairment or other physical limitations.
Audiobook collection
Tangata Whenua/Maaori History
We maintain a lending collection of 1,000+ titles plus a further 4,700+ titles in the Heritage (non-lending) collection on Maaori topics.
Maaori collections
Heritage
Our Heritage collections include archives, oral histories, manuscripts, over 15,000 historic photographs, ephemera and a wide range of books and magazines. The collections focus on Hamilton and the Waikato but also include New Zealand and a limited amount of international material.
Ngaa Koorero Tuku Iho - Heritage and Archives
Newspapers
Daily copies of the New Zealand Herald and the Waikato Times, are available at all Hamilton libraries. Level 1 of Central Library also holds the Bay of Plenty Times, The Press, and Otago Daily Times. The Hamilton Press is also regularly available. The Heritage section on Level 3 holds the Waikato Times back to 1872, most of which are on microfilm.
Motor Manuals
The library has an extensive range of manuals to help you undertake machinery and vehicle repair. We have Haynes, Chilton’s, Ellery’s and Gregory’s manuals for car tuning and repair covering most common makes from Austin to Wolseley for older cars, and Audi to Volvo for modern vehicles. Truck maintenance is also covered.
Motor Manual collection
Music Scores
Our music score collection of over 1400 titles covers a broad range including current popular music, classical works, children's music, Christmas carols, and folk music. We have scores to help those learning musical instruments and to provide supplementary material for music examinations and school curriculum.
Music Score collection
Zines
The Central Library has a small lending collection of Zines — self-published works of original text and images. These are located on Level 2. The Heritage Zines Collection on Level 3 preserves a sample of locally authored and based works.
Zine collection