In addition to residents of Oklahoma County, the system also allows those served by the Pioneer Library System (which includes Cleveland, McClain, and Pottawatomie counties) to check out materials via a reciprocal borrowing agreement, and also allows non-residents to borrow materials if they pay an annual fee.

The other three seats are occupied by the Mayor of Oklahoma City, the chair of the Board of County Commissioners, and the Executive Director of the Metropolitan Library System.

[14] Borrowing physical and digital titles via the Public Catalog, Databases, Ask a Librarian, Tailored Titles, Adult Education, GED and Literacy Programs, Books by Mail, Children's Services, Family Place, Come Read with Me, Meeting Rooms & Rental Spaces, Oklahoma Memories, Printing, Public Computers & WiFi, RSS Feeds, Relay Services, Teen & Young Adult Services, and Suggest a Title.

Many express concern that extreme cultural conservatives exercise an inordinate amount of power over the system.

In August 2005, the Library Commission voted 10-7 to move "easy, easy-reader, and tween" books containing "sensitive or controversial" themes to an area that could only be accessed by adults.

[17] Prior, state representative Sally Kern had spearheaded an effort to keep such books away from children; in May 2005, the Oklahoma House passed a nonbinding resolution to "confine homosexually themed books and other age-inappropriate material to areas exclusively for adult access and distribution", primarily due to Kern's efforts.

[19] In December 2008, bloggers James Miko and Wayne Fuller accused Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett of working with Steve Kern, the husband of Rep. Sally Kern and pastor of Olivet Baptist Church in Oklahoma City, to make nominations to the Metropolitan Library Commission based on the issue of disallowing children access to such controversial books.

[22] After public backlash, the library system hastily clarified that librarians could "provide factual information" but "should not offer opinions surrounding the law.