The San Benito County Free Library was founded in 1918. In August 1959, the decision was made to consolidate the San Benito County Free Library and the Hollister Public Library. The actual consolidation took place the following year, on September 12, 1960, when the two libraries moved into the newly-completed library building at 470 Fifth Street, the present site of San Benito County Free Library.

Prior to consolidation, Hollister Public Library was located in the Carnegie Building (now Hollister City Hall) at 375 Fifth Street. The building, funded through a $10,000 grant from the Andrew Carnegie Library Foundation, was erected in 1911. During that same period, San Benito County Free Library was housed in the Veterans Memorial Building on San Benito Street in Hollister.

With the appointment of the county librarian in the late 70's, a gradual but steady expansion of the library services began. The collection was modernized with emphasis on current non-fiction and an enhanced children's collection. A children's story hour, adult reference services and a Spanish language collection were begun. With the formation of a Friends of the Library support group came jointly sponsored library programming for a variety of age levels. A major accomplishment occurred in 1982, when through the award of a federal grant, the library acquired a custom designed bookmobile enabling it to extend its services to the county's rural residents.

With these expanded services came greatly increased use by the public. Feeling the strain, the present facility was expanded in 1986 to provide for handicapped access, a multi-purpose room and much needed public restrooms. This addition, limited though it was, has allowed greatly increased use of the library by local residents and groups and was made possible by funds provided from the County of San Benito, City of Hollister Redevelopment Agency, and a federal Library Services and Construction Act grant applied for by County Librarian Jo Wahdan. Funds were administered through the California State Library by Gary E. Strong, State Librarian. Additional donations were received from individuals, companies and organizations.

In 1989 a Japanese collection was developed with funds donated by Ozeki Sake (USA) to serve the Japanese/American community. The English collection of Japanese culture was also supplemented during this period.

The library is supported from the San Benito County general fund. Over the years, State and Federal mandated programs have increased and county money remaining for discretionary programs such as libraries, parks, and recreation have decreased. It was in 1992, that the San Benito County Free Library experienced a devastating decline in funding. It was able to remain open only because the County Librarian recruited and trained a large corps of volunteers. Today the library is serving the rapidly growing population with a limited staff and a growing number of volunteers.

Through state aid funds and funds received from grants, the County Librarian in 1993 automated the library's circulation and cataloging departments and installed a computerized public access catalog. Volunteers with computer knowledge and expertise assisted in the installation of the computer system.

In 1994, the InfoPeople project was made possible by a Federal Library Services and Construction Act grant. Four hundred libraries in California received funds for an Internet workstation to provide public access to the Internet, the world's largest depository of electronic information.

In 1997, a word processor for public use was made available. Although the library has been able to enhance some of its services, qualified staffing remains an area of critical need since the library still does not have a professional reference librarian. Consequently, phone reference service is not available. In November, library hours were expanded to include Saturday.

In 1998, the library revived it's INFOBASIC database of community resources. This database, containing over 200 records in both English and Spanish, became available on the Public Access Catalogue (PAC) and on the library's Internet Home Page. In the fall, the Public Access Catalogue was also added to the library's home page (sbclib.com). Patrons can now search over 65,000 items on the NetPAC from any location. With NetPAC, the library can "virtually" open its doors to the public 24 hours a day via the Internet. A Community Events page and several new links to Spanish sites were also added to the library's Home Page.

In 2000, a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation provided four new Internet computers for free use by the public.  Two additional computers were donated by the Friends of the Library and one, with an ISDN line was donated by Hollister Internet.  The Gates Computer Lab with six English language and two Spanish language internet computers were made available for  public use on March 16, 2000.  

A professional reference librarian was made possible in December, 2000 with funds received from the Public Library Fund administered by the California State Library.  Through cooperation, the County of San Benito and the City of Hollister have provided the necessary funds for Saturday access to the library. The library is now open eight hours a day, six days a week, including two evenings. Thanks to local government cooperation, and the State Public Library Fund, the library is beginning to experience a positive upward trend.