Anna Akhmatova Library. She's the only one
Photo: Press service of the Mayor and Government of Moscow. Denis Grishkin
Now it has an educational center, a cinema hall, a cafe, a design studio and a printing workshop.
In Moscow, after a major renovation, the Central Library No. 197 named after Anna Akhmatova opened in Krylatskoye.
“The first smart library appeared in Moscow. It has everything: augmented reality glasses and devices that help create video content. And even practically your own publishing center, where you can make up new book and print it out. I hope that this library will be in great demand. At least the first months of its operation indicate that the number of visitors has almost doubled. This means that we are doing the right thing by modernizing libraries,” said Sergei Sobyanin.
The first smart library in the capital
The Anna Akhmatova Library was founded in 1967. Then she worked on Malaya Filevskaya Street. Since 1988, the library has been located in Krylatskoye in a built-in room of a residential building on Krylatskie Hills Street. In the same year she was named after Anna Akhmatova.
The total area of the premises occupied by the library is 2.8 thousand square meters. Its collection consists of 171,258 documents. The institution employs 18 people.
In 2017-2018, a major renovation was carried out here: the premises were redesigned, the electrical supply, heating, ventilation systems and much more were replaced. New furniture and equipment were purchased for the building.
Today the Akhmatova Library is first city smart library for visitors of all ages. It has a coworking space with access to the Internet, books and gadgets, a multifunctional transformable hall for holding a variety of events (from regular lectures to performances or a hackathon), a video content production studio where professionals will teach how to edit videos and create their own online courses.
In the cinema hall you can show films, cartoons and video broadcasts, in the art space you can organize art exhibitions, exhibitions of photographs, children's drawings, and in the design studio and printing workshop - develop the design of your own book and print it right away.
In the zone "Akhmatovsky Balcony" the biography and work of the poet are told using virtual reality (VR) technologies and neurotechnologies.
“We have a unique neurobook - this is a neural interface that is controlled by brain impulses. That is, we can read a book at a distance,” said the director of the smart library ( Central Library No. 197 named after A.A. Akhmatova) Vladimir Kosarevsky.
Also open in the library:
— early development center for kids “YASAM” / smart nanny - parents have the opportunity to work (for example, in a coworking space) while the children are under the supervision of experienced teachers.
— knowledge laboratory— for conducting school lessons in an informal setting (up to 30 seats);
— educational center with five classrooms offering classes in robotics and other disciplines that help develop 21st-century skills, including digital literacy.
“Mothers come to us with children from nine months to seven years old, and it was very important for us that mothers could calmly study in the library, and children spend their time usefully. Therefore, we implement here the most advanced preschool and additional education. This is our priority,” said the author of the YASAM program, Yulia Alekseeva.
In addition, the library has the latest digital equipment. All premises are convenient for residents with limited mobility.
In the cafe you can try delicious coffee and buns.
Capital libraries are the largest network of cultural centers
We can say that libraries today represent the largest network of urban intellectual cultural centers. The nearest library can be reached from anywhere in Moscow in about 15 minutes.
Their total book stock is 19.7 million books. The number of regular readers is 1.9 million people. Library visits every year more than ten million times.
Today, the libraries operate 725 clubs and sections for adults and children. Every year they host more than 20 thousand cultural and leisure events.
In total, over three thousand people work in libraries. Average wages last year - 63 thousand rubles. In addition, since July 2018, city libraries have received grants from the Moscow Mayor for financial incentives for employees (each employee receives 60 thousand rubles quarterly).
Wi-Fi and corporate identity: how Moscow libraries are changing
The modernization of city libraries began in 2010. On their basis they create modern smart media centers. This year the project received the name “Moscow Library Centers”. Its main goal is to make libraries more open to citizens, so that they simultaneously serve as both a cultural center and a city living room.
“We have launched, as I promised, a program that involves in the coming years the modernization of all library networks, the creation of modern video centers so that in libraries you can not only get books, but also study, work, and communicate. This is a correct and necessary project,” added the Moscow Mayor.
To date, six libraries have been upgraded as part of this project. In addition to the library named after Akhmatova, these are libraries No. 169 “Prospect”, No. 19 named after F.M. Dostoevsky, No. 166 named after May Day, No. 129 and 67. The number of readers increased by an average of 20 percent.
This year they plan to modernize another 35 libraries. 14 will undergo ongoing repairs, and for 21 they will develop design and estimate documentation for major repairs next year.
They want to renovate in the future 40-50 buildings annually. Within four to five years, all Moscow libraries that need it will be put in order.
More than 11 thousand Muscovites participated in 2015 crowdsourcing project “My Library”. They offered more than 5.5 thousand ideas on the development of the capital's network of libraries. They believe that a modern library should have access to electronic resources, rooms and halls for exhibitions, lectures, and master classes. It should have a children's development area, a co-working space, a modern computer room, clubs for all ages, and a book cafe.
All libraries have a local WiFi. This year, more than half of all libraries will be connected to a single citywide Wi-Fi network, the rest - in 2019. This will allow users to register online only once.
Made in the capital's parks summer reading rooms. In 2018, there were 15 of them, with 27.75 thousand guests. This is 29 percent more than in 2017 (21.5 thousand people). We also launched a corporate project, thanks to which the capital’s libraries can purchase books that have become winners and nominees literary prizes(over 11 thousand books were purchased in 2017).
All libraries are connected to . Readers can connect to the catalog for free e-books"liters: library". It contains about 250 thousand electronic works: fiction, books on art and literature, and others.
The portal was launched in 2017 "Decommissioned Books". Anyone can register and take books home. During its work, 536.5 thousand publications written off from libraries found new owners (instead of disposal). More than 45 thousand people are registered on the portal.
In addition, we developed a single recognizable corporate identity libraries of Moscow. Since last year, a unified service department was introduced - employees can register and re-register a reader, accept and issue literature, keep statistics and much more. At the same time, 1,700 new computers were purchased for libraries and counters were installed to record visitors.
Implemented the project "Growth Points". They proposed concepts for the development of libraries taking into account the preferences of residents of a particular area of the city. Topics of interest to city residents include aviation, high technology, comic book art, cinema, transport, graphic story and others.
Three to seven libraries were selected in each administrative district of Moscow. 52 city libraries took part in the project. They have been updated and now they work according to the developed concepts.
Dmitry Prytin
Library No. 197 named after A.A. Akhmatova in Krylatskoye resumed its work, after almost a year and a half of repairs, on June 21, 2018, having acquired a SMART “prefix” during this time. On an area of 2.5 thousand square meters there are not only shelves with an updated and carefully selected book stock, but also a large number of different areas for recreation and learning. The design of the interior space, as well as the technical equipment, has changed radically. All this gave the district library a look so modern and not typical for such institutions that questions about what XXI libraries should look like disappear by themselves.
In principle, Akhmatovka was literally ahead of its time. Back in the late 80s, it was the library in Krylatskoye that became one of the first in the country to switch to an electronic book catalog, and its employees were armed with special reading scanners, like those that can now be seen in any large supermarket. Therefore, residents of Krylatskoye awaited the opening of the library with great interest, as they were sure that even now they would be greeted by a whole “bouquet” of surprises. And “Akhmatovka” did not disappoint.
Why SMART
The first thing that residents of the area, monitoring the progress of the library’s reconstruction, learned about was the addition to the long-familiar name “Library No. 197 named after A.A. Akhmatova" prefix "SMART". Translated from English language SMART means “smart”, “intelligent”, “savvy”, “resourceful”, “intelligent”, “wise”. Almost all of this underlies the skills and competencies of the 21st century, believe the library staff, who kept in touch with readers as best they could throughout the entire period of renovation.
However, there is another explanation why the name SMART was chosen for the Krylatsk library. As the “librarians” themselves say, this abbreviation is usually used in management and project management to define goals and set tasks. At the same time, the goal, which is not surprising, must not only be set correctly, but also be specific, measurable, achievable, meaningful and related to a specific deadline. For example, “I want to learn Spanish in 6 months” or “I want to learn the basics of programming and computer game development this summer.” The SMART library provides all the opportunities to achieve such goals.
Library of the 21st century
If you don’t try it yourself, it’s very difficult to imagine that for a modern library, a carefully selected book collection, fast service, so to speak about the issuance and return of books, and the presence of a reading room are not enough. The same free Internet, which has become commonplace even in “rural” libraries, does not indicate technological perfection. The SMART Library in Krylatskoye provides significantly more opportunities.
The first thing that catches your eye is the virtually ideal design of the interior space and the carefully selected color scheme, which literally set you up for a calm and creative rhythm.
Apparently, this was what the calculation was made, especially since for the design project they had to turn not just anywhere, but to the well-known St. Petersburg architectural bureau KIDZ. It was this company that successfully implemented several library design projects, although mainly in St. Petersburg.
As a result, the already relatively large interior space has become even larger, accommodating previously unimaginable areas, such as a private cinema hall, a recording studio, co-working rooms for children and adults, and even a quite spacious cafe. The adjacent territory has also changed, the improvement of which was already carried out by the Krylatskoye district administration.
At the entrance to the library, there is a bench with an outline of Anna Akhmatova from the forge of the Honored Artist of Russia, President of the Union of Blacksmith Artists Valentin Vorobyov.
The ground floor houses a design studio and a printing workshop. In addition to standard copy center services, here you can work on publishing your own book, print pages and make binding.
The SMART library is also available for people with disabilities: a special elevator can take visitors to the second floor, where the main premises of Akhmatovka are located.
The library of the 21st century now does not have the established Soviet times the principle of dividing premises into a “reading room” zone and a place where books are directly selected, issued and returned. In fact, the entire library space is a free coworking area. To understand this, you really need to be in the library. Out of habit, I want to find some kind of separate room with chairs and tables, the same notorious “reading room”. Now you can read your favorite book anywhere. Almost all surfaces are somehow adapted for sitting on. On top of that, the entire library area has Internet access via Wi-Fi, so you can work without being tied to a specific place.
For those who still want a certain amount of “privacy” or to work, including together, on some project, there are co-working rooms for adults and children with tables, chairs, a large monitor, the Internet, etc.
Modern libraries, which now include “Akhmatovka” in Krylatskoye, are not only shelves with a carefully selected book collection, they are also a place where you can spend your free time in quite a variety of ways, and not necessarily just reading books. You can watch scientific and educational films, video broadcasts and even cartoons directly in the library. In 20 years, cinema halls will definitely become a common feature of any similar cultural institution, but for now this innovation looks unusual.
In addition to the cinema hall, the library also houses an impressively sized transformable hall, which can easily be adapted to host concerts, performances, lectures and even hackathons.
Next to the hall there is a separate place (Art Space) for organizing various kinds of photo exhibitions, art galleries, children's drawings, etc.
The updated library now has its own recording studio and video workshop. Now any visitor can record a song or track for his own film and, without leaving the library, process it, create a video clip and even his own online courses. There are people in the library who will not only help bring such ideas to life, but also provide training.
By the way, special attention is paid to the educational process in the library. Akhmatovka has its own educational center - 5 rooms for testing, mastering and developing XXI skills for all ages.
The library is also convenient for parents with small children, who can now be “transferred” to the early development center for children SMART-nanny. The freed up time while the child is studying under the supervision of elders can be used for his own studies, reading a book or just taking a short break, for example, in a cafe, which is also located in the district library. Before it was closed for renovation, there was already a cafe, but after opening it was transformed and now looks much more convenient, and, importantly, with quite reasonable prices.
Smart and modern book collection
Certain transformations also took place in the library’s book collection, thanks to which, among other things, it was possible to significantly increase the usable area of the premises. Books that were published in huge editions in Soviet times according to orders from above have finally disappeared from the racks and shelves. They were of dubious value and were not in great demand among readers even in Soviet times.
Part of the book stock, which was in little demand among visitors, was moved to special technical rooms. Their area is relatively small, but, thanks to special design racks, the number of books stored there is impressive.
The special pride of the SMART library is its huge collection of comics that will definitely interest not only children, but also adults. One glance at the rack is enough to understand that comics are far from just “thin” magazines with drawings of superheroes and primitive dialogues. It's truly separate and quite fascinating literary world, especially since the collected collection is unique in its kind. Its creator is library employee Andrei Drozdov, who gave lectures on the topic of comics. As library employees say, after a while visitors began to ask why there were lectures but no comics. This is how the idea of creating a comic book center came about. And for 1.5 years, Andrei Drozdov has been raising funds to maintain the collection. Just before the opening of the library, another batch of 90 new books was purchased. In total, the collection contains about 2000 comics.
To become a library reader, you need to issue a special “reader’s card”, which, by the way, is valid in all libraries in the Western District of Moscow. The issuance and acceptance of books or any other information publications can now be carried out without the participation of library staff. For this purpose, a special device with a scanner is installed when entering or leaving the building. It is enough to place books inside the machine and place a “reader’s card” on top of them, which is an ordinary plastic card. The device automatically reads barcodes from books, and using the “reader’s card” it will determine to whom exactly they will be recorded. The delivery of books follows a similar principle. However, if the visitor does not understand how this device works, you can receive or return books the old fashioned way.
Well, of course, the library named after Anna Akhmatova cannot but have some kind of separate platform dedicated to the work of this great Russian poetess. The “Akhmatovsky Balcony” contains not only the works of Anna Akhmatova, the collection of which has been formed since the late 80s, but also hosts virtual excursions(VR) into the world of Anna Andreevna.
Library named after Anna Akhmatova is the only book depository within walking distance in Krylatskoye aimed at adult readers. The library opened in 1988, when the area was already densely built up, since then this place has been the main state cultural point. Library No. 197 will be of interest not only for its book collection and reading room. The following are free of charge: the youth club “Reading Circles”; amateurs gather every Thursday board games; on Saturday afternoon, members of the amateur beekeeping club come; Reader meetings for 50+ are held. In addition, weekly entertainment and educational events are held here: screenings of scientific documentaries, linguistic meetings, meetings with writers, exhibitions of paintings and photographs. There is a cafe, a summer terrace, book crossing, a computer and Internet room, and free wi-fi. It is possible to rent premises for business and educational events.
Photos of the library
Age group
The library serves adults and children
Library Director
Kosarevsky Vladimir Gennadievich
Library structure
Absolute coworking
Multifunctional transformable hall
Cinema hall
Educational center
Design studio and printing workshop
Sound recording and video content production studio
Comic Center
Akhmatovsky balcony
Book fund
Library address
Moscow, st. Krylatskie Hills, building 34
Operating mode
Tue - Sat: from 10-00 to 22-00
Sun: from 10.00 to 20.00
Mon: day off
Last Fri month - sanitary day
How to get to us:
Art. Krylatskoye metro station, first car from the center, from the glass doors to the right, along the passage to the left. Then walk 10 minutes. or by bus No. 688, 732, 832 (to the circle), No. 229 (stop. Kuntsevo Leisure Center)
History of the library
The Anna Akhmatova Central Library was founded in 1967: on January 23, 1967, library No. 193 began its work in a residential building on Malaya Filevskaya Street. The first reader was recorded in 1968.
In 1969, the library moved to a new, specially built building.
Since December 1977, 14 libraries of the Kuntsevo district were united into the Kuntsevo Centralized Library System. Library No. 193 was reorganized into the Central Library of the Culture Department of the Executive Committee of the Kuntsevo District Council.
In 1988, a library was opened in the Krylatskoye district at the address Krylatskie Hills Street, building 34. In the same 1988, by Order of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR (dated June 22, 1989), the library was named after the outstanding poet Anna Andreevna Akhmatova.
In 2014, in connection with the reorganization of the Kuntsevo Central Library by merging the libraries of the Western Administrative District into the Centralized Library System of the Closed Joint-Stock Company, the central library received a new name - Central Library No. 197 named after A. A. Akhmatova of the State Budgetary Institution of Culture of Moscow "Central Library of the Closed Joint-Stock Company".
In January 2017, the library closed for major renovations.
On June 21, 2018, a library of a completely new SMART format was opened at the Central Library No. 197 named after A. A. Akhmatova. On an area of 2,500 sq. m. of technological space, all conditions have been created for continuous education and development of 21st century skills. Everyone - children and adults of any age, schoolchildren and students, representatives of small and large businesses, start-ups and specialists who need professional growth - will not only have access to the library’s book collection, but also the opportunity to get acquainted and work with modern digital technologies, master the necessary competencies of the future with professional mentors, and develop and demonstrate your own projects.
Digital literacy, social-emotional competence, attention and information management, mastery foreign languages and intercultural competence, creative thinking and mental flexibility, the ability to work in a team and manage people, virtual collaboration skills, forming one’s own opinion and making decisions, media literacy - these are only the most basic skills and competencies that need to be developed in order to feel free in the digital age.
The space and content of the SMART library will allow everyone to:
- follow global trends in continuing education, undergo additional training programs at any age, and have real competitive advantages;
- know what professions will be in demand in the future, what skills need to be developed for this;
- even in adulthood, be adapted to the world of technology;
- find the right mentors;
- have access to highly qualified personnel, promising projects and necessary information.
In addition to access to the unique library collection of one of the largest libraries in Moscow, guests of the SMART library will have the opportunity to attend individual and group classes, master classes, trainings, Foresight sessions, seminars, exhibitions, hackathons, presentations, round tables , lectures, conferences, “show rooms”, etc.
The SMART library space is divided into several zones for different categories of citizens and is equipped with modern digital technology.
Circles and clubs
