In the history of libraries in Suceava, the first public library, called the Central Library of Suceava, was inaugurated on December 12, 1923. Before this date, there were several smaller libraries belonging to various cultural societies and institutions in the city, such as the Romanian School, the Romanian Club, the Ciprian Porumbescu Musical-Dramatic Reunion, and the Stefan cel Mare High School. Additionally, two well-known scholars from Suceava, Simion Florea Marian and Vasile Bumbac, owned rich private libraries.
The initiative to establish a central public library and branches in the county belonged to the cultural societies Romanian School and National House, which allocated significant funds for the acquisition of Romanian books. The library started with an initial collection of approximately 2,000 volumes and received numerous donations from Bukovina intellectuals in the interwar period, reaching over 15,000 volumes by 1944.
In the spring of 1944, the city was evacuated, and the library, housed in the National House building, was closed, and the inventories were lost. It followed six years during which the library did not function, and the book collection was ideologically affected, destroyed, or stolen. It was re-established in 1950 and successively bore the titles of county, central, regional, municipal (1968-1974), and county library (since 1974). Since 1993, it has been named the “I.G. Sbiera” Bukovina Library.
- in 1952: 9,030 volumes;
- in 1962: 74,855 volumes;
- in 1972: 139,541 volumes;
- in 1990: 277,000 volumes, including 12,500 serials and periodicals and 10,000 audio-visual units;
- as of January 1, 2016: 430,917 bibliographic units (books, serials and periodicals, audio-visual or digital documents).