It does not appear that King’s Inns possessed a library until in 1787, on the death of Mr. Justice Robinson, his law books (at that time valued at £700) were bought by the Society.

In 1825 the Benchers voted £1000 for the erection of a new library building. The present library building was erected between 1826 and 1830, to a design by Frederick Darley. In 1892 an annexe was added at the north-west end.

A Copyright Act of 1710 required that printers give a copy of each book published to various university libraries in England and Scotland. During the reign of George III, in a further Copyright Act (1801), the libraries of Trinity College, Dublin and of King’s Inns were added to the list. In 1836 the provisions of the act were withdrawn.

Today the library contains over 110,000 volumes, about half of which have a legal content, the remainder being concerned with a wide variety of non-legal subjects.

(taken, in part, from The Honorable Society of King’s Inns by Daire Hogan, 1987)