The local city library was established on 21^st December, 1949. It is the date when the first lending library was founded in the building of the Kiskun Museum. The institution moved into an empty shop in the building of the town hall in 1951. Later, as the place was too small, and the number of books and readers also increased, the library moved to the Swan House, where it can be found today, too. The library functioned as a district library from 1954. The institution took on the name of Sándor Petőfi on 9^th June, 1957.

The Swan House, the only classicist architectural relic of Kiskunfélegyháza, was built in 1820 as an inn and a butcher's shop. The building has become the ornament of the town’s main square with its vaulted passages, entablatured columns and the swan depicted on the inn-signboard on the facade. Its condition completely depreciated by the early 1950s, but in 1965 the leaders of the town had the building renovated and restored it into its original condition. The Petőfi Sándor District Library opened on 30^th January, 1966, and it has been functioning as a city library since 1970. Between 2006 and 2008 the historic building of the Swan House was renovated and a new side-wing was built to it. As a result a modern library building, which meets the requirements of the 21^st century, is available for the readers in the town centre. The lending room, the periodical’s reading room and the reading room are on the ground floor of the new building, while the children’s library is waiting its readers on the first floor. The local collection, the internet service and the media collection can be found in the renovated Swan House. Literary evenings, reading clubs and exhibitions take place in its conference room and gallery.

The literary historical importance of the Swan House is that Petőfi's father was one of the first renters, and then he was the main renter of the butcher's shop from 1824 to 1830. A researcher of Petőfi called Károly Mezősi prepared the first permanent exhibition of Sándor Petőfi in the Swan House, which can be seen up to this day.

The library of 107,000 volumes has 37,000 visitors a year, who lend about 61,000 documents. Nowadays 12 percent of the town’s population are registered readers. The library welcomes all readers and visitors in its renewed surroundings with extended opening hours.