The current facility, designed by James William Kideney & Associates and built in 1964, replaced the original Cyrus Eidlitz Buffalo Public Library Building dedicated in February 1887.

1835 as the Young Men's Association (not to be confused with YMCA), prominent members included Mark Twain, who was the editor of the Buffalo Express from 1869 to 1871.

The Young Men's Association was a private subscription library, meaning that paid membership was required in order to borrow books.

Collections such as large print, video and audio cassettes create a warm place to find information or just sit and talk to a friend.

Residents can borrow all types of materials from adventure fiction to religious non-fiction and use a large legal collection while awaiting trial.

The reference collection includes books, microfilm and pictures with its emphasis on primary source material related to African-American history in Western New York.

[6] The Grosvenor Room includes family histories; general and ethnic genealogical research manuals; vital records indexes; passenger lists indexes; church and cemetery records; surname dictionaries; local histories; military rosters; heraldry and family crest dictionaries; and directories of all kinds.

Twain was a briefly a member of the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library's predecessor, the Young Men's Association, and donated the manuscript of what is considered by many to be the greatest American novel.

It was among the possessions of descendants of James Fraser Gluck, a curator of the Buffalo Library who had requested the manuscript from Twain a century earlier.

[7] A Coalition of professionals, survivors, and the community working to document the tragedy includes Buffalo & Erie County Public Library, The Buffalo History Museum, Buffalo State University, Burchfield Penney Art Center, Canisius University, Darwin D. Martin House, Michigan Street African American Heritage Corridor, The Patricia H. and Richard E. Garman Art Conservation Department, Uncrowned Queens Institute for Research and Education on Women, victims’ family members, survivors, and broader community members.