It merged with the county's local studies library in 1990 and the enlarged unit thereafter adopted the new name.
It had also been designated a diocesan record office, serving the two dioceses of Rochester and Canterbury (archdeaconry of Maidstone).
Over the ensuing years it acquired further administrative links with the Canterbury Cathedral Library and with branch record offices in Dover, Folkestone, Ramsgate, Rochester and Sevenoaks.
[1] The centre closed in November 2011 prior to relocation in a new purpose-built headquarters at James Whatman Way, Maidstone, opening in Spring 2012 and thereafter to operate under another new title – the Kent History and Library Centre (additionally accommodating the county's Central Library).
The new arrangements also involved the closure and absorption of the former East Kent Archives Centre in Dover.