[6] The first explicit mention of the Library is dated November 1475, when the first donations by the University's Chancellor, Bishop John Laing, were recorded.

The Library grew steadily throughout the 18th century due largely to the fact that it was granted legal deposit status between 1709 and 1836.

[7] Legal deposit ceased in 1836 and the Library was granted an annual lump sum which allowed it to develop its collections in line with the University's teaching and research interests.

The library of the royal physician to Queen Charlotte, William Hunter, received in 1807, comprised some 10,000 volumes that augmented the library's holdings by fifty per cent, and extended their reach well beyond the contemporary curriculum; of Hunter's 650 manuscript codices, over a hundred are illuminated, and his incunabula "accorded Glasgow a prominence that it could not have achieved with its own resources".

The cluster of towers are reminiscent of San Gimignano, and form part of a complex that also incorporates the Hunterian Art Gallery.

In 1993 the Glasgow University Library complex was selected by the international conservation organisation DoCoMoMo as one of sixty key Scottish monuments of the post-war era.

[17] Specialist collections for veterinary medicine, dentistry, and chemistry are held in separate branch libraries around campus.

Other notable collections include music scores, Russian and East European material, and significant 18th- and 19th-century print books and journals at the Library Research Annexe.

[18] The 2015 public exhibition in the adjacent Hunterian Art Gallery, Ingenious Impressions -The Coming of the Book, showcased the incunabula collection.