Suzhou Library was established in 1914, formerly Xuegutang (literally, "Hall for learning from the Ancient Times") of Zhengyishuyuan(literally, Zhengyi College) back in the Qing Dynasty, and once named as Jiangsu Provincial Second Library. With 111 years of history, it is one of the earliest public libraries in China, and now listed as National Class-A library. Suzhou Library currently has two existing physical libraries, the People’s Road Library and the Suzhou Library North. It has established a general branch library service system that covers Xiangcheng District, Gusu District and Gaoxin District. And with Reading Express, a Suzhou public library sharing service platform, it has now stretched the service to the whole city area.

The People’s Road Library, located in No. 858, Renmin Road, is a garden-like library with a floor area of 25,000 square meters. Suzhou Library North, located in No.2383, North Guangji Road, is a modern intelligent library with a floor area of 45,600 square meters. In 2024, the annual reader reception of Suzhou Library was 22.39 million person-time with 5.64 million books borrowed; 4,597 various reading promotion activities were held with 0.70 million participants in total. By the end of 2024, the collection volume of Suzhou Library has reached over 7 million books.

With "Equal, Free, Professional, Courteous and Efficient" as its principle, Suzhou Library has established a public library service system that centers around Suzhou Library, with 100 branch libraries and 143 community book pick-up networks(including 69 self-service networks). This system implements unified staff management, unified resource construction, unified service standards, and unified activities for readers. Suzhou Library has built China’s first ancient books library of prefecture-level city-"Suzhou Ancient Books Library", and China's first intelligent book storage system. The Design Library, Digital Technology Experience Library, Suzhou Literature Library, Music Library and other special venues in the library fully meet the needs of readers to learn, research, communicate and to relax.

Through years of service and innovation, Suzhou Library has made many achievements and won a series of titles and honors, including "National Class-A Public Library", "Stars Award" by Ministry of Culture, ALA Presidential Citation for Innovative International Library, "National Advanced Unit for Management of Public Cultural Facilities" "Nation Reading Demonstration Base" by Library Society of China, Jiangsu "Five Star Project Award", "Jiangsu Provincial Civilized Unit" "Demonstration Base for Social Science Popularization in Jiangsu" "Advanced Unit in Protection of Ancient Books in Jiangsu" "Jiangsu Provincial Advanced Unit for Assisting and Supporting the Disabled”, etc.