[1][2][3][4] Services include access to online resources, electronic books and periodicals; postal book loans; reference enquiries and document delivery service;[5] and advanced search skills training.

Subject coverage includes police and policing, crime and crime prevention, criminology, criminal justice, forensic science, leadership,[9] general management, training, educational theory, social science and psychology.

The library was established as part of the National Police College in Ryton-on-Dunsmore in June 1948,[10] originally created to serve senior ranks.

[11][12] This followed the recommendation in the Dixon Report (1930): "the object of which should be to develop so far as possible each officer’s capacity for individual application to the problems of his profession and his fitness for higher responsibility."

[15] Following the sale of the Bramshill House in 2014,[16] the National Police Library temporarily relocated to the College's Sunningdale Park site in March 2015.