The origins of the Shrewsbury Public Library go back to the late 18th Century. A social Library was established in 1792 by a group of town fathers known as proprietors. At a town meeting on June 22, 1872 the meeting voted to provide a room for a public library in the Town House. The Proprietors of the Social Library generously donated 152 volumes, all that remained in the Social Library, to the new library.

The books which comprised the Social Library are housed in the Ward Room. At a town meeting in July 1894 it was voted to purchase the Bond Estate as the library had significantly outgrown its current quarters and needed a space of its own. In March of 1901, it was voted at town meeting to build a library building with a portion of the Jubal Howe Fund. In March of 1902 it was voted to sell the Bond House, to have it removed from the site, to purchase 30 feet of land on the east side of the lot and to build the new library on that site. In the fall of 1903, a new library building was opened thanks to the generosity of Jubal Howe, a Shrewsbury native and successful watchmaker and jeweler. The Library continued to grow and expand and the need for more space for children became apparent.

In December 1922 at a town meeting it was voted to accept the $25,000 generously donated by Mr. Artemas Ward for the purpose of building an annex. The Artemas Ward annex was given in memory of his ancestor General Artemas Ward of Revolutionary War fame and housed a library of Eastern Massachusetts Biography and History. In 1959, Anthony and Olive Borgatti (of Spag's) purchased a bookmobile for the Library. In 1978, town meeting voted a major addition/renovation project for the Library. An addition was added and both the Artemas Ward Annex and the original 1903 were remodeled. A space study conducted in 2000 is the precursor to another much needed building project, to be completed within the next 10 years.

Currently, our collection includes 135,000 books, 354 art prints, over 3,500 videocassettes including descriptive videos, over 200 DVDs, 2,705 books on cassette and 129 books on CD, 2,208 music CDs, 1,035 music cassettes, 526 multimedia kits, 175 CD-ROMs, and 6,548 e-books. The Library subscribes to 14 newspapers and over 160 magazines. Our circulation figures rise every year; we serve a diverse population in Shrewsbury as well as in all the adjacent towns and even the City of Worcester. The Shrewsbury Public Library has, in fact, the second highest library circulation in Worcester County, after the Worcester Public Library.