The Parliamentary Library Committee allowed citizens to borrow on a limited scale from collections under its control in 1927. This arrangement continued until 1934 when a small building erected in Kings Avenue commenced lending material from part of the National Library collection. In 1947 the Extension Division of the National Library was created to be responsible for developing public library services in the ACT. In preparation for handing over public library services to a local administration in 1960 the title Canberra Public Library Service was adopted for the public library services and in 1961 the Kings Avenue building became its headquarters. In 1963 the Canberra Public Library Service Advisory Committee was established to advise the Council of the National Library of Australia on public library services. 
In 1965 the building order of the District Libraries was determined to be Dickson, Woden, Manuka and Belconnen and the first children’s library was to be Narrabundah. Also in 1965 a possible site was selected for the mobile library.
A long-term building programme of boys and girls libraries to a standard design was undertaken with the first two, Narrabundah and Red Hill Boys and Girls Libraries, opening in December 1966. An examination of the sequence of the boys and girls libraries in light of the 1969 school enrolments was undertaken by a Sub-Committee of the Canberra Public Library Advisory Committee, agreed to by the Advisory Committee and confirmed by the National Library. The next two Boys and Girls Libraries were to be Torrens and Scullin.  O’Connor, Curtin and Lyneham were built between 1965 and 1969. In the 1960s plans were drawn up for Boys and Girls Libraries in Watson, Campbell, Hackett, Deakin, Woden Town Centre and Pearce.
Opened	Library	Closed	
1952	Ainslie, Corroboree Park Youth Centre 	1968	
1970 November	Belconnen Branch Library opened at Jamison Shopping Centre, Macquarie		
1981 September	Belconnen Town Centre Library, Chandler Street		
1970-1971	Central Library, transferred to Leichhardt Street Kingston from Kings Avenue		
1961	Central Library, Canberra Public Library Service established in Kings Avenue		
1995	Central Library, transferred from Leichhardt Street Kingston to the refurbished Griffith Primary School and name changed to Griffith Library	2007	
1961 March	Civic Branch		
1968-1969	Curtin Children’s Library	1983 January	
1969 December	Dickson District Library		
	Downer Library		
1983 March	Erindale Centre Library		
2001 June	Gungahlin Library		
1964	Hughes Interim Library		
	Kingston Children’s Library		
1978 July	Kippax  Interim Library		
	Lyneham Children’s Library	1980 August	
1968	Mawson Primary School	1973	
1959 July	Mobile Library Service		
1966 December	Narrabundah Children’s Library	1983 January	
1968-1969	O’Connor Children’s Library	1983 January	
1927	Parliamentary Library		
1966 December	Red Hill Children’s Library	1983 January	
1990 March	Tuggeranong Town Centre Library		
1959	Turner Primary School	1969	
1977 November	Woden Town Centre Library		
1967	Wreck Bay		
1959	Yarralumla	1975 May