The library, housed in a building in Óbuda originally built as a silk reeling manufacture, was founded in 1985 by the Information Center for Community Culture. The institute later became a company and still later was privatized. Since then the library has been, and still is, operated by the foundation. During the last few years the collection has become known as the country's "green" library.

The goal of the library is to provide the foundation, and other environmentalist organizations operating within the building, with ample information and is open to all those interested in the field. Its main profile is literature dealing with the cultural, economical and social aspects of ecology and environmental protection, but books on topics ranging from alternatives to energy utilization and building procedures to environmental education, organic farming and healthy lifestyle, are all a part of the scope of collection. Books and periodicals of the Independent Ecological Center are available at the library as well as the final term papers of the environmental education training program run by the KÖRLÁNC and the ELTE (Loránd Eötvös University of Budapest).

The complete stock of the library and video collection is almost 17 thousand units, with the green section numbering 8,000. In total the number of books and other publications is almost 14,000, and the number of translations and manuscripts is 1000. The rest are videos and various other types of documents. Nearly one-third of the stock, more than 40 percent of the green stock, is in a foreign language, mainly English and German. Out of the 80 periodicals which the library subscribes to 10 are from a foreign country. Several are significant ecological and environmentalist journals. The complete stock of the library can be found on a Micro ISIS computer database.

The library's annual increase is 500 units on an average. Recent development of stock has been in connection to two programs: the Foundation for the Development of Ecological Culture has supported the acquisition of works in the area of human ecology, while the Soros Foundation has supported the development of a base-collection on environmental education. Since 1997-2005 Ministry of Environmental Protection has also helped support the library's stock increase and documentation activities. Since 2004 National Civil Basic Programme contributed to its operating costs.