The HLSB fulfils its diverse tasks at two different locations, which it retained even after the merger on 1 January 2001 of the previously self-employed Hessian State Library into the University of Applied Sciences (then: Fachhochschule Fulda). At the campus location, i.e. the former University of Applied Sciences Library, it offers its services primarily as support offers its services primarily as support for teaching, studies and research in the departments; at the Heinrich-von-Bibra-Platz location, it primarily fulfils its state library tasks.

The former University of Applied Sciences Library has a much more recent history, having only been established in 1971 with the founding of what was then the Fulda department of Giessen University of Applied Sciences. It took over the book collections of the Fulda Institute of Education, which had been built up since 1963, as well as partial collections from other specialised educational institutes and some more extensive donations.
From 1989 onwards, the library was housed in a multi-purpose building at the university until it was able to move into its new building on campus in 2013.
The specialised European Documentation Centre, which opened in 1995, the Peter Kühne Archive, the Rhön Academic Collection and the archives of the Research Society Flight and Migration are integrated into the library as special departments.

The history of the former Hessian State Library as the smallest academic general library in Hesse goes back much further.
In 1776, Prince-Bishop Heinrich von Bibra founded the "Public Library" with stocks that had been collected after the Thirty Years' War in the convent library, the court library, parts of the Jesuit library, which was cancelled in 1773, and the library of the papal seminar in Fulda. On 5 May 1778, the library opened its doors for the first time (in a building that still exists today. The so-called Auditorium maximum of the Faculty of Theology was the reading room at the time). Private foundations, the rich collection of the parish church in Hammelburg and additions from other libraries in the surrounding area after the secularisation of 1802/03 allowed the library's stock to grow continuously.
However, even at the time the library was founded, there were hardly any volumes left from the once famous Fulda monastery library, as most of them had already been lost during the Thirty Years' War. The library received an important addition in the form of 1,560 volumes from Weingarten Monastery on Lake Constance: in 1802, the hereditary governor of Holland, Frederick William V of Nassau-Orange-Dillenburg, was compensated for the loss of his Dutch rule with the Principality of Fulda as well as Weingarten and Corvey.
Parts of the Weingarten library were transferred to Fulda, including 146 manuscripts from the 10th to 13th centuries. Together with the three Bonifatian codices and a copy of the Gutenberg Bible (AT) printed on parchment, they form the highlights of the HLB's valuable historical stock.
Another stroke of luck for the library was the Acquisitions of the Schwank Foundation of 1886 with 209 manuscripts and 7,300 partly rare and old prints, including many on the history of Fulda. The HLSB also owns the largest collection of works by the humanist Ulrich von Hutten (1488-1523) in Germany. Together with a considerable number of early editions of the works of Luther and other reformers, these prints, manuscripts and portraits represent a fund of important intellectual-historical sources that should not be neglected.

Another important event was the city's decision to transfer responsibility for public library tasks to the library. In a cooperation agreement, which sealed a model project unique in Germany, the city of Fulda, the state of Hesse and the Fulda University of Applied Sciences agreed that the library at its location on Heinrich-von-Bibra-Platz would also be responsible for public library functions for children and young people in future. It has been doing this since 1 October 2011 in a modern extension and with great success.