The Regional Regulatory Decree No 7/2020/M which approved the organizational structure of the Regional Secretariat of Tourism and Culture (SRTC), established the Regional Directorate of the Madeira Archive and Library (DRABM) created with attributions in the area of ​​archives and libraries, cultural dissemination and the investigation of island history.
This Regional Directorate is an executive service of the SRTC that superintends the Regional Archive and Public Library of Madeira centralizing the Autonomous Region of Madeira historical archive functions of consolidating services as both the official Public Administration Regional Archive and regional public library, also assimilating the administration of the Centro de Estudos de História do Atlântico ( Atlantic History Study Centre) – Alberto Vieira.
Its mission is to preserve and promote the documentary and bibliographic heritage of the Autonomous Region of Madeira, to ensure the administration, to encourage the dissemination of books and reading habits, and also to promote knowledge and scientific research of the history of the Region within the Atlantic zone.
Its origins date back to 1931 with the foundation of Funchal´s District Archive, whose first director was João Cabral do Nascimento.
Decentralized in 1980, this Archive is now under the supervision of the Regional Directorate for Cultural Affairs and is called the Regional Archive of Madeira. A year before and under the same tutelage, the Contemporary Documentation Library had been created, beneficiary of the Legal Deposit of publications since 1982 and origin of the Regional Public Library, established in 2003. In 2016 both institutions merge into the Regional Archives and Public Library of Madeira .
It holds a diverse and constantly growing collection, due to the incorporation of archives and tickets under the Legal Deposit, holding over 22 km of documents.
In the archive component, this collection holds the documentary memory of the Region since the beginning of the settlement of the archipelago during the fifteenth century, divided between public and private files in addition to an considerable diversity of typologies and media - from documents produced by administrations, to family or personal archives, from manuscripts to iconographic documents and to photography, parchment and paper, to analogue or digital media.
In the library component, over half a million bibliographic species are listed, including monographs and periodicals, including a vast historical collection of local newspapers and an old book fund with fragments dating back to the 15th century. A significant part of the collection is digitally available on the Madeira Archive and Library (ABM) website, 
on the archives and libraries platforms.

User services (for more information, browse the ABM institutional page)

• Public reading and reproductions
• Certificates and endorsements
• Research and documentary information
• Books loans
• Consulting and libraries support
• Consultancy and archives support
• Educational service
• Auditorium (Payed service)