Parkland Community Library started in 1973 as a grassroots effort, and was housed in a converted building in Guthsville, South Whitehall Township.

By February 1974, 6 months after the first library building opened, the library owned 2,699 items, and was open 12 hours a week to serve the 25,419 residents of South Whitehall, North Whitehall and Upper Macungie Townships. By the end of that year there were 659 registered borrowers who had borrowed 4,373 items.

In 1981, the library moved to a new building of 5,000 square feet. By June 1982, one year after the current Parkland Library building opened, the collection had grown to 21,060 items, and the library had expanded its hours of operation to 46 hours a week. There were 8,321 registered library users who borrowed 112,762 items that year. The library's service area included a population of 32,185.

The library steadily outgrew the 1981 building as the community expanded, and as the population increased its use of the library. The 2000 U.S. Census recorded a population of 46,654 people for Parkland. The area continues to grow.

The library currently has a collection of over 70,000 items including books, periodicals, audio books, music CDs, movie and nonfiction DVDs and videocassettes and more. The busy library is open 58 hours a week. In fiscal year 2008-2009, registered users of the library borrowed 294,947 items. Not included in that number are the thousands of people who attended the hundreds of children's and adult programs, who sought information from the reference staff, who used the reference information on the library's webpage or who used the materials and Internet services in the library.