On August 16, 1907, a member of the Women's Improvement Club of Richmond proposed with enthusiasm that the Club establish a public library. Cheers of approval greeted this motion and the Richmond Public Library Club was formed. The members gathered books, built bookshelves, diligently solicited donations and put on fund-raising entertainments, including raffles and whist parties.

Some 70 years after that initial beginning with the Women's Improvement Club's little library, the Richmond Public Library, now composed of a main library, two stationary branches and one mobile unit, looks back with affection to that modest start, recalls with pride the growth of the Library through the years and faces the future with full confidence and expectation of still greater advancement, to serve even more completely the citizens of Richmond and the Bay Area.