The original school Library opened on 15 March, 1955. It is now a study centre. by Lynette Burroughs

The Library

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On the birth of a new school. . . 1955 “I like to think our school is much more than a building. To me it is a community of youth, cheerful in heart, buoyant in spirit, eager to face the adventure known as life. The community will endow these buildings with a soul.” Principal Mr H.D. Tait. Excerpt from the Hamiltonian 1955.

The development and expansion of the Hamilton Boys’ High School campus from its inception, has developed many new facilities, used and respected by all. The growth of student numbers, Management, Teaching and Support Staff have followed Mr Tait’s mantra to the current day. 

“Over the past fifteen years there has been a gradual emergence of the belief that the school Library can be one of the most important units in our educational system. Through its volumes, the horizons of boys can be widened and new interests aroused, standards of literary appreciation can be raised and the ability to judge and discriminate quickened. It can be a research centre, as much for 3X preparing a social studies project as for 6A working for Scholarship examinations. Future careers may be guided and present problems resolved. This changed attitude to the school Library is well illustrated in the very fine accommodation which has been provided in the new school. What a contrast there is between the dark corners used fifteen years ago, and the large, well-lit, pleasantly-furnished room we have to-day! The accommodation has presented us with a challenge to provide a book-stock and administration of the same high quality. Work on book lists began early last year and every effort has been made to ensure that the Library stock is as widely representative as possible and that a uniformly high standard is maintained.

The library now has over two thousand books, of which the following is an analysis: — fiction, 640: encyclopaedias and dictionaries, 60; religion, 12; social services, 25; pure science, 157; applied science, 127; recreation, 81; language and literature, 378; geography and history, 290; travel and war, 176; biography, 79. The following analysis of books on loan on September 22nd gives an interesting picture of the reading habits of the boys:—fiction, 163; travel and war, 74; science, 54; language and literature, 55; geography and history, 24; recreation, 16; biography, 15; others, 7”.

The Baigent Library facility now, in 2021, holds more than 55,000 items including mixed genre books, teacher resources and textbooks. The Library centre and its adjoining rooms have been Student Counselling space, are a place of quiet learning, one to one teaching, archival storage space and the Old Boys’ Foundation base.