The ducal library was supplied, among others, by the bookseller Hoffmann from Weimar as well as with publications from France and Europe by the Strasbourg publishing house Bauer, Treuttel and Würtz.

[2][3] In 2004 a fire destroyed the main wing and a substantial part of the collection;[3] restoration of salvaged volumes lasted until 2015.

In 2001, construction began on a new multiple-floor facility to house some 1,000,000 books under the "Square of Democracy" (Platz der Demokratie) between the Music University and the Red and Yellow Castle.

[8] The Duchess, seeking a tutor for her son Duke Carl August, hired Christoph Martin Wieland, an important poet and noted translator of William Shakespeare.

From an architectural standpoint, the library is world-famous for its oval Rococo hall featuring a portrait of Grand Duke Carl August.

[11] Other items, like Friedrich Schiller's death mask, suffered damage too, and 35 historic oil paintings were destroyed.

In June 2005, it was announced that among the manuscripts that were out of the building at the time of the fire, and thus saved from damage, there was a hitherto undiscovered 1713 aria by Johann Sebastian Bach entitled "Alles mit Gott und nichts ohn' ihn".