History
Pre-library history
In the first decade of the 1900s, the Randwick Council had applied to Andrew Carnegie for funding to start a library in Kensington (possibly within the Kensington school of arts) or Coogee, during the time of Carnegie's prolific library funding in the United States. A reply from Carnegie's secretary said the matter was unable to be considered due to the "overwhelming number of applications received last summer". Years later, a response was received from Carnegie stating that the Randwick council would need to provide an annual sum of £100, but no Carnegie Library was ever funded.
The Randwick City Council expressed interest in adopting the Library Act 1939 before it was finalised (which, despite the act's name, was not until 1944 after being postponed due to World War II). Randwick City Council was an early adopter of the act, adopting it in 1946.
Beginnings
The Randwick Library was opened in 1952, but less than a year later the collection size was already outgrowing the existing space. The Randwick bookmobile began in 1953, staffed with one driver and two librarians. At the time it was the largest mobile library in Australia, with over 4000 books.
Randwick-Botany Joint Library Service
In 1976 Randwick City Council and City of Botany Bay joined together to create the Randwick-Botany Joint Library Service. During this time, the library's bookmobile service endedm originally to be replaced with two minivans to take people to branch libraries, but this ended before the trial time was even finished. The audio-visual auditorium at Maroubra was opened in 1981, with approximately 9816 items including casette tapes, art prints, films, and games, making the library one of the first in Australia to have cassette tapes available for loan. 1983, the Randwick-Botany Toy Library (later the Randwick Toy and Game Library) began at the Maroubra Central Library. In 1984 Mascot Library was nominated for the Library Design Awards. Botany Council decided to deparate in 1983 and Randwick libraries became independent again in 1984.
Fire and funding difficulties
In 1987, there was a large fire at Maroubra Central Library, with the building destroyed. The damaged to stock was estimated at over $1million, with many books suffering smoke damage. A new library (to replace the old burnt-down one) was opened in Maroubra in 1991, named Bowen Library.
In 1992, there were plans to close down Matraville Library, which was significantly smaller than Bowen Library, in order to save library funding. Library funding had been struggling since the late 1980s, and the council had spent a significant amount of it on the new Bowen Library. The closure was heavily debated by the council, and protests were held by residents. It was decided to keep the library open.
2000s
In 2003, around $7000 worth of fine-art books, which were no longer in print, were stolen or damaged (with individual pages cut out and stolen, believed to have been framed and sold) from Randwick City Library. This was part of a larger spree of thievery of rare art books in libraries around Sydney at the time. In 2009 Randwick City Library became to the first library in Sydney to offer ebooks for loan.
In 2012, the Randwick Branch Library was renamed Margaret Martin Library, after the first female mayor of Randwick. Four years later in 2016, Bowen Library was renamed Lionel Bowen Library. In 2013, Randwick Library was visited by (then princess, now Queen since 2024) Mary of Denmark for the launch of eSmart, an anti-cyberbullying and e-safety program sponsored by the Alannah and Madeline Foundation, of which the Princess was the international patron of.
Like many libraries in Sydney, Randwick City Library branches were closed during parts of the COVID-19 Pandemic. In July 2020, Randwick City Library got rid of late fines for borrowed items, waiving over $169,936 worth of fines.