OREANDA-NEWS. On 20 April 2009 was announced, that new neighbourhoods of Moscow are to be developed providing the locals with a library service. It is stipulated by a draft municipal law on a library and information service for the urban population that is under discussion in City Hall.

Under the draft law the designing and building of residential neighbourhoods without taking into account the current rules on a library and information service for the urban population are not allowed in Moscow.

It provides for preserving and expanding the chain of libraries by using the up-to-date information technologies as well as expanding Bibliogorod system set to grant Muscovites free access to all of the city libraries.

Sergey Khudyakov, head of Moscow’s Department of Culture, said the draft law expanded a list of free services in libraries of the Russian capital.

“While the federal law provides for only four free services, the draft municipal law provides for eleven. Among them is the lending of documents from the library stock for temporal use, a remote access to the documents, an access to the expositions of books from Moscow’s public libraries, an access to the e-resources,” the official added.

According to Mr Khudyakov, more than 2.6 million residents of Moscow use the libraries nowadays.