The library was started during the centenary celebrations of Sri Ramakrishna in 1936. It is an important library in the city with over 43,300 books in English, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Sanskrit, Hindi, Kannada and Bengali. Books on a wide range of subjects such as philosophy, religion, mysticism, linguistics, fiction, history, geography, psychology, etc., are available to the public. The library subscribes to 188 periodicals. The reading facility is free and open to all. Members can borrow books on payment of membership fees.