
Our ninety year history in a couple of paragraphs, taken from ‘Libraries in York’ by O S Tomlinson, in The Noble City of York by Alberic Stacpoole (1972), pp. 969-993…
The first Public Libraries Act was passed in 1850 and was the result of a movement looking to form libraries which were freely open to everyone. After much opposition this first Act was only applicable to towns in excess of 10,000 people and it did not provide for the purchase of books.
A further Act in 1855 resolved some of the limitations of the first one, and as a result more towns began to open their own free libraries. The method of adopting the Act was to be by a poll of the city ratepayers. It took until 1891 for York to gain approval from the city ratepayers, by which time 169 towns had established ‘free libraries’.


In 1913 the Library Committee had been considering that the building was inadequate and approaches were made to the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust. After preliminary negotiations, a formal request was made to the Trust in 1915, and following investigations, an offer of £12,000 was made on 29 February 1916. The Trust added, however, that any building work should not commence until after the war.


In 1934 a further portion of the building was erected, before the building was finally completed in 1938. The completed building was opened by Sir John A R Marriott MA on 26 October 1938.
On the outbreak of war in September 1939, the News Room and Magazine Room at the Central Library were taken over by the Civil Defence Authority as the headquarters of the WVS, and in the following month the Hunt Room and the basement were commandeered by the Ministry of Food for the local Food Control Office. Following the Baedeker Air Raid on York in April 1942, the building was used for a fortnight as the Central Administrative and Information Centre for relief purposes. During the first week of this work library activities were completely suspended, and staff were seconded to help the thousands of people requiring assistance.
Towards the end of 1957 the Civic Records were transferred from the Guildhall to the Library and a full time archivist was appointed to administer this collection and other archival material relating to the city. Further alterations to the building were also seen in the 1960s, with the expansion of the Readers’ advisory service and the addition of a gramophone record collection in 1968. The library service in York continued to expand, and by 2014 the service it included the main central library and 14 branch libraries across the city. The service also currently has two reading cafes and one mobile branch library.

Quite a lot has happened to our wonderful building and we have decided there is much need for celebration!
Of course there will be cake, but also keep a watch out for all the fantastic events and displays (big and small) we will be holding throughout the year celebrating our last 90 years.
To kick off our celebration all the staff who reside at York Explore are taking on a mammoth 1927 book Reading Challenge. We’ll be sharing with you all the books we read, especially the ones we love. We will also be keeping you all updated on how we are progressing through that number of books – so wish us luck!