The Asian Branch Library was founded in 1975 as part of a Federal Library Services Construction Act grant to create a model library serving the Asian community in Oakland with multilingual staff and collections. In 1978, the branch moved from its original location at the Park Boulevard to the Main Library. In 1981, it moved to its own building at 9th street and Broadway. The current location in the Pacific Renaissance Plaza opened to the public in 1995.

The Asian Library is unique among public library branches in the United States as it houses eight Asian languages (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, Cambodian, Tagalog and Laotian) in major reference titles and general subject titles. Additionally, it has an Asian Studies collection, an in-depth Asian American collection in English and a unique young adult Manga collection. English holdings comprise 30% of the total library collection which has approximately 74,000 books, CDs, videos, DVDs, VCDs, magazines and newspapers for adults, pre-school children and a growing teen collection.