The Youngstown Free Library first opened on Nov. 12, 1949. It was started as a project of the Youngstown Civic Guild and on Feb. 28, 1949 they created the Youngstown Free Library Association. When the Library first opened their doors they were located at 120 Lockport Rd. but in 1973 they decided to move their headquarters to its current location at 240 Lockport Rd. for more space.

The current library is 2,798 sq. ft., nearly triple the size of the old library (925 sq. ft.). The library sevice population is officially at 3,972 people. When we first opened our doors we had only 1,700 books, 6 magazines, and were only open three days a week totaling 13.5 hrs/wk. But now we house around 20,000 books, 57 magazines, and are open 36 hrs/wk, 6 days/wk.