Moscow’s Department of Culture of Moscow is trying to come up with a legal means to allow public libraries in the cities to lease unused space they have as cafes. At the moment, librarians and staff members themselves could organize such catering operations, but this does not allow the institution itself to profit. Even placing vending machines in the libraries has proven difficult as the city turned down this suggestion in the past as well. The possibility of allowing libraries to set up a café would allow them to retain any profits, however the issue of pricing remains to be solved. If the rent paid by the café is the standard market rate, the concern is that this may prove to be unprofitable since Muscovites are not accustomed to sitting down to coffee in a library.
Igor Bukharov, President of the Federation of Restaurateurs and Hoteliers supports the idea to bring coffee culture to the libraries. “Today, cafés with bookshelves are beginning to appear, so that visitors can read at lunch. But this is reversed history.” While the city-owned libraries may yet find a way to add retail to their offering, there’s no chance of that with the Russian State Library. Its press secretary Iryna Kovalenko said that federal libraries are not allow to rent out any space.
