The town of Lyme was established by a charter in 1761; the first library was formed on January 20, 1798 and called “the Social Library in Lime”. In 1908, the town voted to support a public library called the Lyme Town Library.

By 1936, the library had outgrown its space in the Lyme School and the town accepted a bequest to build a separate library building across the street in memory of Sidney Converse, to be called the Converse Free Library. An addition was added to the building in the early 1980s.

The collection today includes about 23,000 books, 1600 videos and 1400 audiobooks, along with access to over 17000 eBooks and eAudios through the New Hampshire Downloadable Books consortium. The library functions as the school library also, sharing its resources with the Lyme Elementary School across the street through the efforts of the librarians in each building.

The library has fiber-optic, high-speed wireless Internet access for its patrons and visitors, 24/7. Nine PC and Mac computers are available for adults and children.