Installed in successive premises and known by various names over its more than one hundred years of history, its origin was that of a small technical library created during the Universal Exposition of 1888.

In 1902, with the Museums Board, a period began that would end in 1906-1907 with its opening to the public in the old Arsenal of the Palau de la Ciutadella and with the creation of a Special Library Commission.

It is worth highlighting the role of Josep Puig i Cadafalch, who organised the collection and adopted the model of the major libraries of contemporary European and American Art, a task subsequently continued by Joaquim Folch i Torres (in Spanish), the first director of the Art Museums of Barcelona.

From 2013, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the death of Joaquim Folch i Torres, the library bears his name.