The original Carnegie library building was razed in preparation for the 1968 construction of the current, spacious three-story facility. LSCA funds provided $211,909 of the total $440,000 cost of construction. Hays is located in Ellis County, which elected to levy a system tax in support of the Central Kansas Library System in 1966.

In 1987, with a circulation of over 200,000 materials a year, Hays Public Library is the eleventh most heavily used public library in Kansas. Approximately 1,500 young people participate in the Summer Reading Program each summer. The city of Hays, which in 1985 raised its public library support to 6 mills, subsidizes ninety percent of the library's funding. Sixty-five thousand volumes; four thousand recordings; tapes and compact discs; one hundred eighty-seven newspapers and magazines; videocassettes; art prints; filmstrips; a public use microcomputer; and a Kansas history and genealogy division are included in the library's collection.

Weekly films, KCH programs, story times and children's programs, school services, book and film services to senior centers, art exhibits, and meeting facilities are offered by the library. With the help of the State Library, the Hays Public Library also instituted its first literacy program in 1986. The library building has been entirely renovated which is testimony to progressive board and city management.