Canton Library

Public libraries in Cardiff are owned and operated by Cardiff Council. There are 20 public libraries in the capital of Wales, the largest of which is Cardiff Central Library. A mobile library service is also provided. In 2009/10, there were nearly 80,000 Cardiff residents, around 25% of the city's population, who borrowed an item from a municipal library.

There are 280 computers in libraries in Cardiff and £70,000 of capital funding has been set aside to replace and upgrade these facilities. Internet access is offered free of charge at most branches. Cultural events are regularly held at city library branches.

The first city library opened in central Cardiff in 1861, followed by the city's first branch library in Splott in 1894. The latest building to serve as Central Library opened in 2009 as part of a major reconstruction of the eastern city centre, including the St. David's 2 project.

Cathays and Canton Libraries are both Carnegie Libraries, built with money donated by Scottish businessman and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.

In 1861, a free library was set up by voluntary subscription above the St Mary Street entrance to the Royal Arcade in Cardiff. By 1862, the Public Libraries Act of 1855 allowed local councils with 5,000 inhabitants or more to raise a rate of one penny in the pound to provide a public library. Cardiff was the first town in Wales to establish a public library.

Two years later in 1864, the library had moved to bigger premises in the now demolished YMCA building, in St Mary Street. A School of Science and Art and a small museum was also added, and so it became known as the Cardiff Free Library, Museum and Schools for Science and Art.

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