[1] With the growth of the University College of Swansea in the 1920s the old library based in Singleton Abbey was no longer suitable.

[1] A competition was held in 1934 and was won by the London architect Verner O. Rees who designed other university libraries including the now-demolished University of Birmingham Library which was constructed in 1959.

[3] The university's foundation stone, which was put into storage after King George V laid it in 1920, was placed into the bricks of this new library.

[1] The 1937 Library now forms the East wing of the much enlarged Library and Information Building complex which was designed by architects Sir Percy Thomas & Son in 1963.

[5] A public lecture by Andrew Green and an exhibition were held in 2017 to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the building's opening.