János Mogyoróssy (1805-1893), the overseer of the Wenckheim estate with a small income, donated several books from his collection - almost 300 ones – to the town in 1836. At Mogyoróssy’s expense Lajos Czigler architect detached a room of six square meters on the first floor of the Roman Catholic School (today School no. 2). The first public library of the town was established here. As most of the previous donation was lost, in 1868 Mogyoróssy offered another 800 volumes as a present. The Békés County Archeological and Culture-historical Society was formed in Gyula in 1874, and it took over the library and the museum. The same year Benedek Göndöcs abbé, the chairman of the society had the spinning-house renovated in the court of the County Hall (today the Mayor’s Office) at his own expenses and the collection was relocated here. In 1894 the society rented the Czinczár house (14 Városház St.), so the library and the museum moved into three spacious rooms there, then to its so believed final place to the Göndöcs public gardens in 1895 (today 35 Béke Sugárút). The new building was designed and built by József N. Szabados. The arms of the county on the forefront were modelled by Ede Kallós. Mogyoróssy retired as director in 1890. Pedagogues were trusted to direct the institute. Taking in inheritages, the library became absolutely crowded with books by the turn of the century. The public collection was placed in the Roman Catholic Principal Grammar School (today János Karácsonyi Catholic Grammar School) from 1908 to 1930, serving mainly educational purposes. József Implom took over direction of the library from 1930, which was already in the civic boys’ school (today József Implom Primary School). Implom did an ideal job. In 1934 he made the mayor approve the regulation of use of the library and the same year the institute started operating as a town library. With valuable donations the book collection increased to 11.000 volumes (Karácsonyi collection, present from the Dobay family, etc.). During the first decade after the World War II the collection with great past fell victim to different reorganizations. It was separated from the town museum in 1950, and removals became more frequent: ground floor offices of the Town-council from 1950 to 1952, and from 1953 until 1959 the Jókai Community Centre was the home for the readers of the town. In 1959 it relocated to its previous place in the Public Garden, and when the extension was finished in 1962, with its aesthetic furnishing it became one of the most beautiful libraries of the country. The institute adopted János Mogyoróssy’s name in 1968. In 1970 it was awarded the Excelent Library title. In 1979 it was decided that the former town hall would be converted into library. The town hall was built in 1861 by József Nuszbek’s design, and it served its original function until 1949 when the county’s administration was relocated to Békéscsaba. After that the Romanian Primary and Secondary Grammar School operated there until 1981. The feasibility study of converting the building into a library was made by the Library Science and Methodology Center of the National Széchenyi Library, the implementation plans were prepared by György Balázs, Erzsébet Gotthard and József Hercska, and the Budgetary Plant of Békés carried out the works. After completion of the job the building was handed over to the readers on 7 November 1987.

The next most important changes in the history of the library – in the new building - were the technical and information technology related developments. In the children’s library computerised lending has been in operation since 1989, and the first computer network was established in 1993. Due to the continuous development we closed our traditional paper based catalogue in 1996, and since then our readers have been able to look for the data of the new acquisitions on computers. We started providing internet services in 1999 which was extended through a successful tender. The multimedia services of the children’s library started operating in 2002. With the help of another successful tender in 2004 we are now an eHungary point providing computer usage and internet access for our guests.

Naturally, not only IT related developments have been carried out in the library in the bygone period. With the help of Goethe Institute a German reading-room awaits learners of the German language, the German nationality inhabitants and the many foreign visitors of the town since 1994. We established an art video collection in 1997 providing a unique service in town. The maintenance of the recordings of the programs made by Gyula Tv between 1989-1998 was transferred to the library at the end of the 1990s. The material, that is under processing, is not complete but it is a selection of historical value regarding the past of our town. The European Union Information Service of our library started operating in 2000, as the European Information Sub-point of the library. Our music club opened in 2004, which provides outstanding services for those who like music and films.

The launch of the Electronic library was part of extending our service offers, also, when we joined those national initiatives (EBSCO and NAVA services), which provide further educational and informational opportunities for the users. There were new calls for tenders in the European Union from 2007 to 2013, our library being successful again. With the TIOP 1.2.3 tender we ere able to modernise the IT infrastructure in 2010. Through the TÁMOP 3.2.4 tender our homepage, electronic library will be renewed, also we accomplish library and reading popularizing programs.