The University of Kelaniya Library was Crystallized around the Vidyalankara Pirivena Collection with the elevation of the Pirivena to a fully pledged University status in 1959. Throughout its existence, the library was located in several places and finally moved to its present building in 1977.

The present library collection encompasses over 248,078 printed books and nearly 100,000 ebooks pertaining to various academic disciplines ranging from Archaeology to Zoology and subscriptions to about 22,313 academic journals.