The Slovene public libraries in the Trieste district originated in the second half of the nineteenth century together with similar institutions for the Italian-speaking population.

The first among them was the "Slavjanska narodna čitalnica" - Slav Reading Room, inaugurated in 1861, which was a meeting point for all the Slav peoples living in the centre of Trieste. Its founders also aimed at building a library with the association's funds and gifts in money, books and manuscripts.

After that, in many town quarters and the surrounding villages the so called "čitalnice" - reading rooms were founded. Those associations basically aimed at increasing the cultural growth and strengthening the national awareness among the Slovene-speaking population through the spread of reading. The Trieste township administration had shown no interest at all in the collection and spread of books in the Slovene language; for this reason the Slovene population of Trieste had to manage by themselves to found the first libraries. These were based on voluntary work and developed thanks to the efforts of their members, without any public financial subsidies.

On a wave of enthusiasm, club libraries and reading rooms proliferated in Rojan, Sv. Ivan, Barkovlje, Opčine, Rocol, Škedenj, Kolonja, Prosek and in the very town centre. As is typical for a club's activities, they experienced periods of prosperity and periods of stagnation. Some of them ceased their activity towards the end of the nineteenth century, but their inheritance had been assumed by other cultural associations and libraries that sprang up in new places as Kontovel, Sv. Marija Magdalena Spodnja, Lonjer, Bazovica, Padriče and the town quarters of Sv. Jakob and the Borgo Teresiano. During the same period some parish libraries were founded in the town and its surroundings.

By the break of the century two new libraries had been founded by two organisations of great importance. In 1905 the socialist-oriented Workers' Educational Association "Ljudski oder" was founded. This association had arranged many new libraries in the town and its surroundings with the intention of spreading appropriate reading among its members. In 1907 the Association of the Academics "Balkan" had been founded in Trieste. This association established as many as thirteen public libraries in a couple of years and had also been planning to open a central public library.

After the First World War, the libraries of the associations Balkan and Ljudski oder were the first to restart their activity. The Ljudski oder was just about to open a main public library in Trieste in 1919, but unfortunately during the same year the Fascist commandos had begun to attack the worker's organisations. The Slovene associations had been attacked as well, and their libraries set on fire. One of the first to be destroyed by fire was the library of the association Ljudski oder in the Worker's House. Some other libraries had been opened in that period, but soon all of them would be reduced to ashes, as was the main Slav cultural centre, the National House, burnt by the fascists in 1920. This fire destroyed the richest ever Slovene library in Trieste, the library of the association "Slavjansko društvo" that had been operating without interruption for 59 years. In this grim atmosphere the central Slovene organisation Prosveta has been founded in 1922 and many of the local clubs had joined it. Its main purpose was to provide the affiliated clubs with books for a certain time, thus creating a mobile library.

But the year 1927 was fatal: all the Slovene clubs and organisations had been banned by decree. The Slovene associations were disbanded one after another and the libraries that survived the fascist attacks would have been seized had they not been hidden in good time. Only a very small part of the material that could today give evidence of and describe the cultural activity of the Slovenes in Trieste in that period has been saved from the fires and confiscation.

After the Second World War all had to be rebuilt by scratch. A suggestion was made to re-establish a central Slovene public library in Trieste. The Narodna in študijska knjižnica - Slovene National Library of the Studies was officially founded on July 15th 1947 and in 1951 it opened to the public. In addition to their usual work, its staff edited several bibliographies. Later on, two more sections joined the NŠK: the History Section in 1951 and the Slovene Public Library "Damir Feigel", situated in Gorica, in 1989.

A milestone in the evolution of the NŠK is the year 1973, when the Socialistic Republic of Slovenia conferred it the right to receive a deposit copy of every publication printed in Slovenia. Furthermore in 1977, the library moved to its renovated premises in Via S. Francesco 20, where it is still situated. From the year 1976 the region Friuli - Julian March recognises it as an institution of regional interest. From 1991 to 2000 it was supported by Italian state subsidies, according to the "law for the boundary areas". Since the year 2001, the funds for its activity are granted by the law for the protection of the Slovene community in Italy.