The State Library has particular responsibility for collecting, preserving and digitising Western Australia's heritage materials.

In 1886, the Western Australian Legislative Council allocated £5000, equivalent to A$748,000 in 2022, to be spent in celebrations for Queen Victoria's golden jubilee.

Instead, books to the value of £1000 were ordered from England, and the library found temporary accommodation in a building opposite the site.

[5] However, James Battye successfully resisted having the Board take over control of the Public Library of Western Australia.

It was closed for a year for renovations, then reopened in 1956 as the State Library of Western Australia.

[8][9] By the late 1970s, the library had grown sufficiently that staff were working from ten different sites and annexes in the city.

It is named after Fred Alexander, the first chairman of the Library Board of Western Australia.

The State Government provides funding for the majority of the book stock and some other library materials, and local governments provide physical and technological infrastructure and staffing to operate public libraries.

[13] As a member library of National and State Libraries Australia, the organisation collaborated on the creation of the National edeposit (NED) system, which enables publishers from all over Australia to upload electronic publications as per the 2016 amendment to the Copyright Act 1968 and other regional legislation relating to legal deposit,[14] and makes these publications publicly accessible online (depending on access conditions) from anywhere via Trove.