A Carnegie Foundation grant of $40,000 paid for the construction of a library building, with the community's having raised money to provide operating and maintenance funds.

The Carnegie Library was built at 9th Street and Wall Avenue and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places later in the 20th century.

In 1995 the building was remodeled and expanded to create the Rosemary Titus Reynolds Children’s Library, which was dedicated in March 1996.

On November 11, 1978, one day before the hotel was scheduled to be brought down by explosives, it collapsed and trapped three workers in the rubble.

Costing nearly $15,000,000, the new facility has meeting and event rooms and spaces, an outdoor plaza and courtyard, children's, teen and adult book collection areas, and makerspaces and equipment for creative arts and business innovators.

The Joplin Public Library District is funded primarily by a combination of real estate taxes and commercial surtaxes.