Our predecessor was the Tainan Assembly Hall Library, which was created under Japanese rule on 1919. In 1924, it joined the public sector and was renamed the Tainan Library of Tainan City, which later became the Tainan Municipal Library as it is known now. By 1942, the Tainan State had 23 public libraries, including 12 in today’s Tainan City.

Following the end of WWII in 1945, the Tainan State was divided into five cities and counties, including Tainan City, Tainan County, Chiayi City, Chiayi County and Yunlin County. From then on, Tainan City and Tainan County have developed their own public libraries. The Tainan Library in Tainan City changed its name to the Tainan Municipal Library and gradually expanded to a Central Library and 7 branch libraries. Before the merger of Tainan City and County, the Tainan County had 31 libraries in 31 villages and townships and 2 libraries under the Office of Cultural Affairs.

As the Tainan City and the Tainan County were combined on December 25, 2010, the libraries merged. The 31 city public libraries originally managed by the 31 villages and townships became district libraries and are now managed by 31 district offices. The Tainan Municipal Library joined the original Cultural Center Library of Tainan County as the Nanyin Municipal Library. (On January 1, 2012, the Xinyin Cultural Center took over the Nanyin Municipal Library and changed its name to Xinyin Cultural Center Municipal Library.) On January 1, 2014, 7 branch libraries became district libraries and taken over by district offices. In addition, Xinying Cultural Center Library, Tainan Cultural Center Art Salon, Xiaolong Children's Library, Yancheng Library, Taijiang Cultural Center Library and the new main library of Tainan Municipal Library opened on January 2, 2021. A total of 45 public libraries, plus 2 mobile book carts (Taijiang No. 1 and TNPL mobile book cart).

Commissioned by the Cultural Affairs Bureau, the Municipal Library is responsible for developing strategies, managing resources, planning the budget, reviewing operations, creating a citywide automated public library system and the public library Entry (i.e. the portal), placing contracts for library book purchases, arranging Library outreach programs as well as professional training for librarians.

District libraries are community libraries managed by the township office to meet the reading needs of local people.