The Shanghai Library was founded in 1952, and the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of Shanghai was established in 1958. In October 1995, the Shanghai Library and the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of Shanghai merged to become a comprehensive research public library and center for industrial information. It is also the branch of the National Cultural Information Resource Sharing Project in Shanghai, the main library of the Shanghai Central Library System, Shanghai Ancient Books Protection Center and the “Pioneer Technology Development Research Center” of the Shanghai soft science research base.

The Shanghai Library now has a collection of over 53 million items in Chinese and foreign languages, including such unique resources as rare books, letters and rubbings, celebrity manuscripts, genealogical records and local histories, Western rare books, sheet music, modern newspapers and periodicals, and patents and standards. The library has a total area of 127,000 square meters, with all kinds of open spaces, such as reading rooms, academic activity rooms, lecture halls and exhibition halls.

The library abides by the principle of serving the general public and provides free reading and book loan services. The Shanghai Library conducts various forms of Reading for All activities, attracting millions of people to the library. The Shanghai Library Collaborative Online Reference Services, One-Card-Through electronic resource remote services, “Shanghai Memory” digital library, Shanghai Library Lectures and Exhibitions, Accessible Library Services and other special services are well-received by the general public at home and abroad.

The library takes advantages of intelligence services to support scientific research and innovation. The technological information services focus on the cutting-edge technologies, emerging industries, metropolitan research and other key areas, having a leading position in the country in such fields as technical research, patent analysis, technology assessment and competitive intelligence. The Shanghai Intelligence Service Platform and the “Source of Creativity” Information Service for SMEs have established new models for the industrial intelligence services.

Based on its capacity for intelligence research, the library provides high quality consulting services for decision-making, and with the Shanghai Library Information Bulletin, "No. i Intelligence, media assessment and other high level research intelligence services, the library offers a variety of decision-making reference information for the field of urban development.

Adapting to the development of modern technology, the Shanghai Library has developed new reading experience and ubiquitous knowledge services, leading the libraries in the country to provide SMS, mobile library, e-book reader loan and other services, launching the "Public Digital Reading Promotion Program” and providing cross-platform digital reading services to personal computers, tablet PCs, mobile phones and other end-users,.

The Shanghai Library strengthens professional exchanges and social cooperation, constantly improving the cooperation mechanism of information resources. The Shanghai Central Library relies on the "One-Card-Through" book circulation system and subject library construction as the carrier to promote the interlibrary resources sharing. The Shanghai Industrial Intelligence Development Consortium provides the public with technological intelligence and information advisory services through the "Shanghai Industrial Intelligence Service Network”. As an exchange program with overseas libraries, the "Window of Shanghai" helps to disseminate the Chinese culture, as well as expanding channels for international library professional cooperation.

The Shanghai Science and Technology Literature Publishing Co., Ltd., the National Newspapers and Periodical Index, the Shanghai Culture Yearbook and the Library Journal all adhere to the principle of correct orientation and focus on both social and economic benefits, providing readers with quality scientific and cultural information.
The Shanghai Library & Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of Shanghai implements the core values of “delivering the knowledge that helps stimulate wisdom and ignite aspiration through excellent services and sincere cooperation”, carries out the mission of “accumulating culture and contributing to superb knowledge services” and strives to build a world-class city library. 

The new building of the Shanghai Library opened in 1996. It was the country's first library facilitated with comprehensive information technology, and also the first to implement modern overseas library automation management software.

Currently, the library computer management information system consists of two platforms, the one-card-through information system platform of the Shanghai Central Library and the Shanghai information service platform. With a single digital library resources and service system, the library has established five cluster systems and ten application systems, including public service cluster, digital resources cluster and electronic resources cluster, portal website group, internal office automation and public service network, and security system cluster. It is equipped with more than 160 servers, including 8 mini-servers, more than 130 network devices of various types, and 19 storage clusters. The available online storage capacity exceeds 360TB, and the offline storage capacity is about 227TB. There are also more than 1,600 computers and over 3,100 network nodes.

The “one-card-through” information system of the Shanghai Central Library has achieved the full coverage of the three-tier network of city, district and county and neighborhood libraries, linking the city's nearly 250 libraries and more than 280 service stations. The amount of books available for circulation with the "one-card-through" system is over 9.3 million, and the annual circulation is more than 36.76 million. There are 686,000 valid reader cards. The Shanghai Central Library has become a public library book circulation service system with the largest number of clusters and service capacity. In recent years, RFID technology has been applied in the central library. The Main Library and a number of branches of the Shanghai Library have launched self-service registration and 24-hour automatic library services.

The Shanghai information service platform oriented towards enterprises, government organizations and scientific research institutions has conducted the digitization of resources related to competitive intelligence and industrial research, established a public intelligence service knowledge base with independent intellectual property rights and highlighting intelligence navigation functions, and formed the public intelligence service capabilities integrating "science and technology, industry and culture". The annual addition of original intelligence research articles has exceeded 1,000 articles, and the amount of annual visits is more than 10 million.

In the area of digital library construction, the library has established its own metadata storage of digital historical documents and digital object data integration, providing readers with rare books, manuscripts, genealogy resources, Sheng Xuanhuai’s Archives, books and journals published in the Republic period and North China Daily News. There are a total of 3.79 million metadata records and 45.9 million full-text pages. It has become one of the largest self-built digital repositories in the country, with 232TB of all kinds of self-built digital resources.

The Shanghai Library has also launched "My Library”, a personalized service system, providing interfaces in Chinese, English, and Japanese, as well as services to mobile devices and cell-phones. By the end of 2012, the mobile APP client installations reached nearly 20,000. The system has adopted data mining technology, adding such brand new application functions as book loan history search and   personalized book recommendations. Reader can trace their book loan history since 2008. The number of readers using "My Library" has reached 300,000. The monthly amount of al kinds of service SMS sent out is over 86,000, and the average amount of E-mails sent out in a month reaches 160,000, with an increase of 35% over last year. The application function of the "My Library” system and the breadth of coverage has a leading position in the domestic libraries.

By the end of 2011, the Shanghai Library launched the “Public Digital Reading Promotion Program”, forming a cross-platform digital reading experience, covering such mobile terminals as PCs, iPad /Android tablets and mobile phones. The system has now incorporated 300,000 e-books, 10,000 completed online books, 1,000 serial online novels, 8,000 electronic journals, and 60 electronic newspapers. In February 2009, the Shanghai Library became the first library in the country to loan e-book readers. So far, it has established a mobile reading device experience service and circulation system, with 2,000 e-book readers and tablet PCs in dozens of varieties. The e-book loan service in launched at the same time at several branches of the Shanghai Central Library, including Jiading District, Putuo District, Changning District, Xuhui District and Qingpu District libraries, further expanding the digital reading service coverage.

The construction of such support and management information systems as office automation system, public service network system and information security management system has not only enhanced the management level of the Shanghai Library, but also ensured the normal operation of the library's information security and information systems, and maintained the excellent results of opening 365 days in a year with trouble-free operation since the opening of the new building.