FPL is overseen by a Library Board of trustees with five members appointed by the City Council.

1888 The Gem Pharmacy, owned by William J. Starbuck, ran a "traveling library" supported by private donations.

1902 Mrs. James Dean opened a "free reading room" on the NW corner of Commonwealth Avenue and Spadra (now called Harbor Boulevard).

1907 The city's first library building was erected on the NW corner of Pomona and Wilshire Avenues with a $10,000 grant from Andrew Carnegie.

1971 A joint powers agreement was entered into between the County of Orange and the City of Fullerton for the purpose of issuing $1.3 million in revenue bonds to finance construction of a new Main Library on Commonwealth Avenue.

1972 Ostrich Eggs for Breakfast; a History of Fullerton for Boys and Girls, written by children's librarian Dora May Sim and illustrated by Wanda Collins, was first printed.

The former library at the corner of Pomona and Wilshire Avenues would later become home to the Fullerton Museum Center.

1999 Construction began on a $1.6 million expansion of the Main Library funded primarily with a Redevelopment bond.

The Main Library received a private donation from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for new public computers and a technology lab.

The library also participated in One Book, One Community, with programs about and influenced by Khaled Hosseini's Kite Runner.

Many of the materials in the history room are from Fullerton's early history and development and include books, scrapbooks, personal narratives written by early residents, program brochures, periodical and newspaper clippings, maps, local telephone books, city directories, photographs, videotapes, microfilm, slides, posters, and memorabilia.

[7] The local history room has several projects in the works including digitizing two photograph collections which are available online: the Fullerton Building Survey Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine as well as the Centennial Collection Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine.

In 2012, the library undertook an oral history project, interviewing almost 20 Fullerton residents who had lived in the city since the 1950s and in some cases since the 1920s.

The Hunt branch had been proposed as a future site of the future Norton Simon art collection, however,[9] negotiations fell through, and it became the Hunt Branch instead, while the art went to the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, California.

The Hunt Branch provides books, computer access and wifi, programs for children and adults including story-times, book-clubs, and after-school activities, and rental meeting room space.

Its future is currently being debated; however, the Fullerton City council has not provided funding to operate the branch through June 2015.

Neighboring property owner (Grace Ministries) is currently leasing the building on a month-to-month basis.