The Historical Library of the City of Rudolstadt is a public universal library that serves both academic purposes and general education. The diverse composition of the collection of more than 85,000 books and periodicals illustrates its genesis from the court church library at the end of the 16th century to the public state library of the Principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt in the 19th century, known as the Princely Public Library of Rudolstadt. Over the centuries, various sources of acquisition, not least the preferences of several generations of princes of the House of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, led to a universal book collection with outstanding works from the history of books and printing. These include 140 incunabula (printed works up to 1500), works by humanists and reformers in first and early editions, magnificently illustrated editions of the Bible or scientific works from the Baroque period with elaborate copperplate engravings, numerous periodicals from the 17th to 19th centuries as well as an extensive collection of territorial literature on Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt and Thuringia. Among the most valuable items in the collection are autographs and manuscripts, particularly by Martin Luther, Philipp Melanchthon, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Schiller and Ottilie von Goethe. After the Princely Public Library initially continued to exist as the Thuringian State Library of Rudolstadt after 1918, a development began around 1949 which increasingly led to the centuries-old book collection being neglected. It was not until after 1990 that Rudolstadt became aware of the supra-regional importance of its book treasure. In 1993, the historical collections regained their institutional independence under the name Historical Library of the City of Rudolstadt. Since 2003, the library has been located in Rudolstadt's Old Town Hall.

The Historical Library of the City of Rudolstadt is a reference library, i.e. there is no lending service. A reading room with PC connections and modern copying facilities are available for use. The majority of the collection is indexed using an alphabetical and systematic card catalog. The entire collection is currently being catalogued in an online catalog. Guided tours of the non-public part of the library are available by appointment for groups of up to 15 people.