City of Johannesburg Library and Information Services (CoJLIS) is the public library system of the City of Johannesburg metropolitan government in Gauteng, South Africa. It oversees about 90 public branch libraries across seven administrative regions (A–G), serving the city's roughly 4.9 million residents. CoJLIS is part of the city's Community Development cluster and aims to support literacy, lifelong learning and digital access for all Johannesburg communities.
History.
The Johannesburg public library tradition dates to the early 1890s. Shortly after Johannesburg was founded (1886), a volunteer library committee secured premises and appointed the first librarian in 1890s. As the town grew, the Johannesburg Town Council took control of the library in 1924 and planned a major new building. The landmark Italianate Johannesburg City Library (JCL) building on Market Square was completed in 1935. During the apartheid era the system expanded separate branches (including the first Soweto branch in 1937), and in 1974 the main Johannesburg Public Library became the first South African public library to admit Black and Coloured members.
After the end of apartheid and the 1990s reorganisation of local government, the Johannesburg library service was unified. In 2006 the City of Johannesburg restructured libraries into seven regions (Regions A–G) to ensure equal access across the metro. The Johannesburg City Library (the central heritage branch) was closed in April 2009 for an extensive R68-million renovation. It officially reopened in February 2012 as a modernised "21st-century model city library". More recently, the central library was closed during the COVID-19 pandemic and remained closed for five years for further work. The library partially reopened in March 2025 (first floor only) with the children's library and the historic collection (~1.5 million volumes) again available to the public. The Mayor committed to opening all floors open by June 2025.
Strategic framework.
Digital Transformation Strategy (2023-2025).
In March 2023, CoJLIS approved its first formal “LIS Digital Transformation Strategy 2023–2025,” prepared by Director, of City of Johannesburg Library and Information Services, Nobuntu Mpendulo. This roadmap aligns to the City’s Joburg 2040 vision and the Smart City Programme, and is intended to guide CoJLIS’s shift from primarily physical services toward fully integrated digital offerings over a three-year period.
Vision and mission.
Vision: “A network of dynamic public libraries that are places of choice for communities to access information, knowledge, learning, recreational reading, and activities.”
Mission: 
Services.
CoJLIS offers a full range of library services to all ages. Key offerings include:
Library network and list of libraries.
CoJLIS currently operates roughly 90 branch libraries across the city's seven regions. The flagship Johannesburg City Library (Market Square) is a historic neoclassical building opened in 1935. It holds over 1.5 million volumes (books, newspapers and archives). After a major renovation it reopened in 2012, and as of 2025 its first floor is once again serving the public.
List of libraries in CoJLIS.
Each branch caters to local needs but is linked by a unified system and online catalog. Collectively, Johannesburg's library network provides free educational resources, information access and digital services citywide.