The library focuses on supporting the learning needs of clients in the Learning Centre and providing customised research support via Faculty Libraries in order to facilitate information and knowledge solutions to the University's core business. The main library includes the Learning Centre, the Back Office (technical services) and the following faculty libraries:

- Economic & Management Sciences
- Natural & Agricultural Sciences
- Engineering & Built Environment
- Humanities (incl. Music)
- Theology

The faculty libraries at different campuses consist of the Oliver R Tambo Law Library, the Education Library (Groenkloof), the Mamelodi Library, the Veterinary Science Library (the only one in South Africa), and the Health Sciences Library which is spread over four different locations.

The library strives to be the leader in the provision of solutions for information and knowledge challenges to academic excellence. Therefore, in addition to the traditional library services, the library presents a holistic e-service to its clients, including e-books, e-journals, an academic portal, a digital research repository, customised web pages, an e-thesis database, knowledge tools, digitised full text local collections, and a digital reference service.