The Contemporary Documentation Room was established in Rua dos Ferreiros by Sara Maria de Portugal. In 1982 it became part of the Legal Deposit of publications, under Decree-Law No. 74/82, of 03 March and in 2003/2004 a Regional Regulatory Decree no. 14/2003/M, of 23 May created the Regional Public Library. In 2004, it was transferred to a new building located on Caminho dos Álamos, Santo António, sharing the premises with the Regional Archive of Madeira and in 2016 the two institutions merged into a single government body renamed the Regional Archive and Public Library of Madeira (ABM). In 2020 a Regional Regulatory Decree No. 7/2020/M, approving the structure of the Regional Secretariat for Tourism and Culture (SRTC in its Portuguese acronym), established the Regional Directorate of the Archive and Library of Madeira whose purpose is to supervise and manage the archives and the libraries and also to promote scientific research and culture dissemination.

It includes 3 Reading Rooms – A General Reading Room, a Children and Young Adult’s Room and a Special Reading Room (for the blind and visually impaired);21 thousand bibliographic items available for home loans.
300 thousand bibliographic items available for consultation and loan, in storage and 376 thousand bibliographic items available in the catalogue.
Approximately 25 thousand readers with reader's card.Several collections of particular interest and value: Diário de Notícias Newspaper Collection; Legislation Collection; Iconographic Collection (consisting of postcards, posters, prints, drawings, maps and other non-book material); Reserved Items (including ABM collections with greater value and heritage significance).

Credits: Regional Directorate of the Archive and Library of Madeira