Moscow Libraries

Moscow has an exceptional library network, with about as many libraries per head as Amsterdam or Paris. Yet it is badly underused: surveys put the library near the bottom of the list of places Muscovites go in their free time. How do libraries become part of the city's cultural and public life again? How do you get people back through the door?

What does it take to give everyone open, free access to information? What would make a Moscow library a cultural space people actually want to use? Could a library become the city's living room, a place that appeals to everyone?

A cross-disciplinary team of publishers, booksellers and urban designers studied Moscow's libraries as a system with several layers. They looked at how the city's centralised library systems are organised and how good the service is today, but also at each library as a particular address on a particular street. The aim was to find where the system breaks down and where its untapped potential lies.