The role of libraries in the urban cultural landscape is determined. The authors consider the problem of city branding, analyse the main publications on the studied subject, describe the major factors influencing the formation of urban space, define the specific features of the urban culture, in formation of which the important role play the cultural institutions which are responsible for the leisure activities sphere.

Indicating the problem of no demand of the services provided by cultural institutions, there are characterized the normative documents that determine the directions and prospects for the development of public libraries. It is emphasized that in modern conditions there is a discrepancy between the needs of young citizens and the services offered in the information market. This leads to the outflow of readers from libraries and to the lack of interest to the events arranged by them.

Using the example of Ulan-Ude city, the capital of the Republic of Buryatia, there are analysed operating procedures of city libraries and considered the questions of space organization of the modern library.

There are presented the results of survey, where the main objective is studying the opinion of citizens about the place of libraries in modern society. There are summarized the results of the Round table devoted to the problems of organization of library space, the culture of reading of urban citizens and professional growth of library personnel, held by the Ulan-Ude Central City Library named after I.K. Kalashnikov and the East-Siberian State Institute of Culture.