The State Central Library was established in the year 1954 at Shillong, the then capital of undivided Assam along with seven District Libraries at district headquarters of seven plain districts, viz: Guwahati, Nagaon, Jorhat, Dibrugarh, Tezpur, Dhubri and Sichar under Education Department’s scheme of “Improvement of Library Services” as sponsored by Govt. of India during 1st Five Year Plan.
With the shifting of capital from Shillong to Guwahati after the creation of new state Meghalaya, State Central Library was shifted to Guwahati in 1974 which was subsequently upgraded to a separate directorate in the year 1984 to be known as “Directorate of Library Services” vide govt. notification no. ETM 168/79/Part/IV/124 dtd. 27.01.1984 under jurisdiction of education Department. However, in 2003 the administrative control was transferred from Education (CTM) Department to the Cultural Affairs Department vide govt. notification no. AR15/2003/51 dtd. 02.08.2003.
Initially during 1954, public library schemes were implemented by the government through plan limiting the services only to the urban section of the state which was however brought under non plan scheme covering one State Central Library 23 District Libraries, 14 Sub-Divisional Libraries and 3 no of Branch Libraries.
With a view to expand the library services to the grassroot level and to build up a sound network of library services from the rural level to the state level, the Rural Library Scheme was implemented in the state in the year 1985. Till now, all total 204 no Rural Libraries have so far been setup in different Districts to extend library scheme which is being with the provision of establishment of one Rural Library in each Gaon Panchayat in the State of which 199 rural libraries are functioning smoothly till date.
With the creation of new Sub-Divisions at different places of Assam, 14 no Sub-Divisional Libraries were also created at Jonai, Majuli, B Chariali, Sodiya, Charaideo, Sarupathar, Hojai,Hamren (Hill area) Pragjyotishpur, Rangia, Gosassaigaon (BTAT) North Salmara, South Salmara & Udalguri (BTAD). Subsequently the sub-Divisional Library, Udalguri was upgraded to District Library.
The Govt. of Assam has created 2 no of District Libraries and 1 no. Sub-Divisional Libraries newly at BTAD area of the State vide Letter No. CAD 389/2008/pt-1/60 dt. 04/08/2014. In addition to these District and Sub-Divisional Libraries, one full fledged children Library at Bishnu Nirmala Bhawan at Guwahati, Branch Library at Dispur (Dispur Branch Library) with a view to nurture reading habit of the inhabitants of capital complex, a Research and Reference Section under the Directorate is also providing facilities to all public & the research scholars.