This article presents the history of the longest-running library in Liberec, founded alongside the museum in 1873. Like the museum itself, the library initially operated under the auspices of the city’s most influential association, the Gewerbevereine. Following the museum’s institutional independence, the library emerged as one of the most significant arts and crafts libraries in Bohemia. The paper explores how the nationally tense atmosphere in Liberec — particularly from the late nineteenth century, when the city aspired to become the capital of the Czech Germans — was reflected in the museum library. It also examines the acquisitions made during the period when the North Bohemian Museum was intended to serve as the model museum of the Sudetenland, and it traces the development of the library’s holdings after the Second World War and the post-war population transfers. Finally, it considers how the museum’s transformation from an art-historical institution into a regional museum after 1945 was mirrored in the library’s evolving role and collections.