The Hubei Provincial Library was established at the Wudang Temple in Wuchang District on March 14, 1904. It was the first official provincial public library in China, renowned as “the sea of wisdom on the Chu Kingdom.” It is currently located on No.25, Gongzheng Street, Wuchang District, Wuhan, covering an area of 6.7 hectares, with a total floor area of 102.3 thousand square meters. The main building of the library has eight floors above ground and two floors under ground, with 6,300 seats. The library holds the Hubei Branch Center of the National Cultural Information Resource Sharing Project, Ancient Books Preservation Center of Hubei Province, Children's Library, Digital Library Experience Zone, Braille Library, Xu Xingke Memorial Library, Expert Research Room, Lecture Hall, and the Exhibition Hall. Furthermore, the 24-hour Self-service Library and self-service library card making machines can satisfy the borrowing needs of readers around the clock.

By the end of 2017, the library’s collection was over 8.01 million books, with 880 terabytes digital resources and 2.7 million readers annually. The library is open all year round in order to provide readers all kinds of services, such as document borrowing, information consultation, topic retrieval, public lectures and the use of digital resources. It has created events, such as the Yangtze River Forum, Yangtze River Reading Festival, Children's Fun Reading Festival, Month of ‘Public Digital Cultures Benefiting the People,’ and Public Exhibitions of Charming Cultures. With the rapid development of new media, more abundant digital resource services have been constantly offered by means of portal sites, mobile libraries and WeChat.

The library has received many honors, including becoming a member of the National Advanced Cultural Group, and being recognized as a National Grade-I Library, the Best Provincial Civilized Unit, a National Reading Movement Demonstration Base, the Integrity Culture Education Center of Hubei Province, an Excellent Publicity Unit for the Promotion of Digital Libraries, an Advanced Unit for Party Building, and is among the Top Ten Reading Bases in Hubei Province and one of the Province's Top Ten Libraries.