Abstract: This article examines reading as one of the traditional leisure activities of urban dwellers. The reading culture as a distinct kind of communication has already been studied by social and cultural scientists of XX-eth century like N.A. Rubankin, I.A. Butenko, P.B. Biryukov, B.A. Uspenskiy. Reading is presented as a necessary attribute for urban cultural life. Attention is focused on youth reading, especially technical collegehigher education institution student reading. This defined the object and subject of the research for this work. The authors employ public opinion surveys, based on MGSU control groups. The authors also employed the systemic analysis methods that enabled the authors to link the state of modern information culture with reading traditions. The novelty of this research is defined by the fact that the authors have successfully conducted a synthesis of cultural and social science approaches to studying reading as a phenomenon, as well as information culture as a whole. Cultural science's non-numerical conclusions were taken into account, as well as social science's numerical data in youth control groups. Another novelty is the attempt to compare traditional forms of reading head to head with IT-spread-based information exchange forms.