The Regional Secretary for Education and Culture highlighted in Angra do Heroísmo the Regional Government's investment in the cultural sector with the opening of the new facilities of Luís da Silva Ribeiro Public Library and Regional Archive, an investment of about 18 million Euros.
 
Avelino Meneses spoke to journalists on the sidelines of the ceremony, stressing that the "problems" raised about the location and the cost of the new infrastructure, which consists of three floors covering a gross area over 9,000 m2, "are no longer an issue." The past "is now gone and, from now onwards, we have the present and the future, which are promising."
 
The Regional Secretary stressed that "facilities are not the soul of institutions." Nevertheless, in this case, he recognised that the facilities now opened, located near Silveira e Paulo Palace and Jerónimo Emiliano de Andrade Secondary School, "were much needed."
 
In this context, the government official added that the opening of the new building, which stores 250 thousand books, solves "once and for all the insufficiency of a legal deposit library that "had no actual benefit for the public" due to the lack of an exhibition area and the size of its archives." The latter were probably the "largest of the archipelago" and were part of several collections scattered throughout the city of Angra do Heroísmo; this situation caused numerous constraints.
 
"From now on, it is a new life" for the Angra do Heroísmo Public Library and Regional Archive, renamed to "Luís da Silva Ribeiro," an Azorean personality born in the 1920s who stood out in politics and was also a distinguished scholar, namely in the fields of History and Ethnography.
 
Luís da Silva Ribeiro was, among other things, an advocate of the creation of an archive, a library and a museum on Terceira Island.
 
The Regional Secretary for Education and Culture conveyed his belief that the new facilities "will pose no problem in terms of space in the coming years"; however, he recognised that there will be some constraints with the necessary procedures for the transfer of books and documents
 
"It is a procedure that cannot be carried out overnight," said the government official.
 
All books, like other collections, are being subject to a process of disinfection and treatment, using bubble and purging methods, which, due to their specificities, will render the immediate access of interested parties to all documentation impossible.