The Saratov Regional Universal Scientific Library is one of the oldest in Russia. It is located in the city center at the intersection of Gorky and Moscow streets, near the Theater Square. The departments of technical, agricultural, local history literature, and literature on art are located at 99 Chelyuskintsev Street, while the foreign literature department and the French reading room are at 32 Moscow Street.

The library was opened on February 19 (March 3) 1831 at the initiative of Admiral N. S. Mordvinov, president of the Imperial Free Economic Society. Initially, the books were stored in a gymnasium, then they were moved to the Noble Assembly building, and from 1856 to 1885, they were housed in the city duma. By its 60th anniversary, the library had about 13,000 volumes and was located in the building of the Radishchev Museum. In 1898-1899, the People's Audience building was constructed according to the design of N. M. Proskurnin, where the library shared space with the cinema 'Udarnik' from 1913 to 1997. In the 1930s, with 2.5 million publications, it became a major scientific and methodological center for the region.

Today, the Regional Scientific Library not only preserves books but also serves as an important information, educational, and cultural center. It collaborates with Germany, the USA, and France. The library's collection includes about 3 million storage units, including significant sections of local history and agricultural literature, as well as rare books and journals from the 18th and 19th centuries. Since the 2000s, the library has been modernizing and computerizing, creating an electronic catalog and bibliographic databases. The number of regular readers exceeds 40,000 people.