Public library service for the residents of Belmont County was established in Martins Ferry, Ohio, in October of 1930, after three years of preparation. In 1927, the Martins Ferry City School District began the process of establishing the Martins Ferry Public Library as a school district public library. The leaders who planned and gathered resources and materials became the first Board of Trustees of the Martins Ferry Public Library. The first location was a storefront at Fifth and Walnut Streets. This and two successively larger storefront locations served as the library until 1968, when the current building was funded through a grant from the federal Library Services Construction Act and a local bond issue.

Library service to the rural portions of Belmont County is an integral part of the Library.  The State Library Board in the late 1930s designated the Martins Ferry Public Library to be the County Extension Center Library for Belmont County. Extension services in the form of branch libraries and bookmobiles were provided by the Martins Ferry Library Board. Library branches were opened in Bethesda in 1936; Shadyside, Neffs and Flushing in 1937; St. Clairsville in 1938 (in 1942 establishing a separate school district library); Bridgeport in 1939; and the final branch, Powhatan Point, in 1950. The Neffs Branch closed in 2002. County-wide bookmobile service began in 1938. The Martins Ferry/Belmont County bookmobile served rural areas in Belmont County from 1938 until 2012 when cuts to state funding forced the Library to end this service.  Bookmobile service resumes in 2026.

After the State of Ohio eliminated County Extension Libraries from state law in 2012, the Library Board chose to continue to provide library service at all our branches throughout county by becoming a county district library.  Thus, the Martins Ferry School District Library with County Extension Services became the Belmont County District Library in July 2013.

The voters of the newly defined Belmont County District Library passed a one-mill levy in November 2013 to replace funding that had been cut by the state. This levy, which provides half of the operational funds for the library, was renewed in 2017 and made continuous in 2022.

The Board of Trustees of the Belmont County District Library proudly continues their mission to provide free and equal access to the citizens of Belmont County and the surrounding area.