In 1906, the Gilroy City Council adopted a resolution to establish and maintain a public library in Gilroy. Plans were made to secure funding for a new building through the Carnegie Foundation. In 1910, the library moved into the new Carnegie building located at 195 Fifth Street, the present site of the Gilroy Historical Museum.

The residents of Gilroy passed a $600,000 bond issue in 1966 for a new building to accommodate the needs of the growing community and library. The Gilroy Public Library joined the Santa Clara County Free Library on July 1, 1968.

The library collection has grown from 57,000 volumes in 1975 to more than 120,000 volumes in 1995. The library subscribes to more than 250 periodicals and carries a large selection of records, cassettes, CDs, videocassettes, pamphlets, and CD-ROM's.

The Gilroy Public Library converted its records to an automated system in 1988. Since 1995, the online system not only provides access to the library catalog but also to many resources including full-text magazines and the World Wide Web.

See our Gilroy Library Expansion News page for a progress report on the new Gilroy Community Library.

Community Librarians of Gilroy:

Mary Briggs Benn 1907-1915
Irma Whitney (Kilgore) 1915-1917
Pearl Lavin 1917-1943
Marjorie Grodhaus 1943-1965
Mary Goshert 1966-1969
Alice Dawson 1969-1970
June Hopper Hymas 1970-1983
Lani Yoshimura 1984-