Established in 1969, initially, the library operated in borrowed premises at the Malayan Teacher's Training College, Gelugor. When USM moved to its own permanent campus at Minden in 1971, the Library was housed in a heritage building which is now the University's Museum and Gallery. The main library moved to its present three-storey building (Perpustakaan Hamzah Sendut 1) in 1979 and an additional Library building (Perpustakaan Hamzah Sendut 2) was built in 1996.
On 10 December 2004, the Main Library was named hamzah Sendut library taken after the name of the first USM Vice-Chancellor, Tan Sri Hamzah Sendut.