The Municipal library of San Juan was opened on October 16, 1880. Ponce opened its municipal library in 1890 with books of the Reading Cabinet and the private collection of Don Miguel Rosich as a nucleus. Under his guidance the library was operated with modern methods. When the Carnegie Library was opened in July 1916, the Insular Library was dissolved and its collection transferred to the new building. Today, almost every town and city of consequence in the Island has a library of a sort, not comparable, however, with the libraries familiar to town and village dwellers on the mainland.
Some towns have a reading room supported by municipal funds for the benefit of the public.
Guayama and Fajardo have municipal school libraries, and the Department of Education maintains similar projects in other towns. Immediately following the American occupation, the school system underwent a series of modifications. Coeducation was provided for, with free schooling for all children between the ages of six and eighteen. The length of the school year was fixed, and an urban system of graded schools inaugurated. Curricula were reorganized and religious instruction in the schools eliminated.