Should museums open their libraries to the general public? This is a delicate question, widely discussed within and outside the museum community. The lack of a consensus on this topic made it one of the key points at the Libraries in museums – museums in libraries conference, held in Moscow in May 1999. While the recently-established ‘Open Museum’ Association in Russia aims to make all museum activities open to the public, and to develop interactive communication with both real and virtual museum visitors, libraries are not yet one of its priorities. However Irina Timasheva firmly advocates changing the role and mission of museum libraries, as has been done at the Samara Museum, and demonstrates the benefits to both museum and local community. Even if this ‘first swallow is not yet a Spring’, there is already a quite noticeable trend towards the open museum library in Russia.