Across 21 locations and online, VPL serves over 236,000 active members and is the largest public library system in British Columbia.

The library provides community information, programs for children, youth, and adults, and delivery to homebound individuals.

The Hastings Literary Institute continued to exist until the Granville area was incorporated as part of the new City of Vancouver on 6 April 1886.

In December 1887, the Reading Room opened at 144 West Cordova Street, above the Thomas Dunn and Company hardware store.

During this period, the American industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie was giving money to cities and towns to build libraries.

In 1901, the City of Vancouver approached Carnegie about donating money for a new library to replace the space in the YMCA Building.

In 1901, American steel magnate, Andrew Carnegie agreed to donate $50,000 to build a city library if Vancouver would provide free land and $5,000 annually to support its operation.

A public plebiscite fixed the site at Hastings and Westminster (now Main) Streets, next door to the first City Hall.

The building was designed by Vancouver architect George Grant and is in the style of Romanesque Renaissance, with a domed Ionic portico and French mansard roof.

The move from the Carnegie site to the new location at 750 Burrard began in mid-October 1957, and the official opening of the new library was held on 1 November 1957.

In September 2009, the library cancelled a room booking made by the group Exit International to hold a workshop by Philip Nitschke about assisted suicide.

David Eby, executive director of the BC Civil Liberties Association, which failed to get the ban lifted, said "Usually, librarians are our closest allies in this free-speech debate.

Centred on the block, the library is a nine-story rectangular box containing book stacks and services, surrounded by a free-standing, elliptical, colonnaded wall featuring reading and study areas that are accessed by bridges spanning skylit light wells.

VPL Central branch internal glass facade overlooks an enclosed concourse formed by a second elliptical wall that defines the east side of the site.

This glass-roofed concourse serves as an entry foyer to the library and the more lively pedestrian activities at ground level.

"[4]: 263  The inclusion of the 21 story office tower in the design was required in order to pay for it and as part of a deal with the federal government to obtain the land; the federal government has a long term lease on the high rise office tower portion of the project.