The Parkland Regional Library Service originated in 1970 as a library demonstration project funded and administered by the Province of Manitoba. The terms of reference for the experimental project were to test ways and means to provide efficient yet effective library service to rural Manitobans. In fulfilling its mandate the project brought library service, in one form or another, to virtually every community in the Parkland region.

The demonstration project terminated December 31, 1975, but from it emerged the present regional library system, the largest in the province, fully established under the terms of the Public Libraries Act.

Today, the library system operates 23 branches and a book-by-mail service.