In 1857 the San Francisco Board of Education established Minns' Evening Normal School for current and prospective teachers in the city. Named after its principal, George W. Minns, the institution was formally established as the first California State Normal School by the State Legislature in 1862. A decade later, the Legislature voted to move the Normal School to San José, and the school relocated to its new home on Washington Square prior to the fall term of 1872. After a fire destroyed the Normal School building in 1880, the Legislature authorized 200,000 dollars to construct a new building on the same site. Completed in 1881, the building was commonly referred to as the Second State Normal School. After several names and curriculum changes, Minns' Normal School is now San José State University, offering more than 134 bachelor's and master's degrees with 110 concentrations, and is recognized as one of the top public universities granting such degrees in the West.

In 1996, SJSU President Robert L. Caret and San José Mayor Susan Hammer began early discussions to build a joint library, and in 1998 the two entities signed an operating agreement. Complex planning efforts began in 1999 and in 2003 the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library opened to the public. The completion of the 475,000-square foot library--the largest library to be built at one time west of the Mississippi--under budget and on schedule became known as "the miracle on Fourth Street." The amount of planning and productivity to carry out this innovative venture required multiple layers of collaboration, fund-raising, and support from a diverse community of users.

The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library provides combined services for the campus community of 30,000 students, SJSU faculty and staff, and to the larger community population of close to one million people. The merger has enhanced access and discovery to a wealth of resources, from books, e-books, databases, audiovisual materials, and primary sources to an expansive public art collection. The library opened in 2003 despite initial opposition from some university faculty and members of the community at large. Today the library serves as a gateway from K-12 to higher education, and has become the cornerstone for life-long learning in the region.