The Maywood Public Library is governed by a seven-member board.  Members are elected by the public to a six-year term and elect their own officers bi-annually.  The Board meets eleven times annually on the first Wednesday at the Library at 6:30 p.m. There is no meeting in August.

The first Maywood Public Library building was built in 1905 with money donated by Andrew Carnegie.  It is a member of the Metropolitan Library System, a consortium of 200 libraries that exchanges books.  The Maywood Library has 90,000 books.  The collection includes circulating fiction and non-fiction plus reference works for in-library use, for both adults and children.  The Library has 5,000 videotapes available for rent at $1 for three nights.  The Library also has an extensive Black History Collection, located throughout the building.  These books can be identified by red labels on the spines.  Special Index tables house the African-American Reference Collection on the library's third floor.  The Library has a wide range of Spanish language materials also housed on the third floor.

The Library subscribes to approximately 95 periodicals.  Microfilm copies back to 1950 are kept of Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report.  Copies of the Maywood Herald on microfilm date back to the 19th Century.  Proviso East High School yearbooks, dating back to 1916, are available on microfilm.  The Library keeps back copies for three months of three Chicago daily newspapers, as well as USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, and Crain's Chicago Business; Sunday-only issues of the New York Times are also kept on file for three months. 

The Library has a specially-equipped computer and printer for the Blind.

Library patrons have access to a photo copy machine, typewriters and computers.  Copies of microfilm material can be made on a microfilm reader-printer for ten cents each.  A fax machine is available; the cost is $1.50 for each page.  The Library is accessible for the disabled.

Program for children include story times, summer reading clubs, and specially scheduled activities.