MACAU, September 30 - In order to optimise the reading resources of the community and contribute to the development of Macao as a “City of Reading”, the Bairro da Ilha Verde Library, under the auspices of the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC), was inaugurated today (30 September). The opening ceremony was officiated by the Chief Executive of the Macao SAR Government, Ho Iat Seng; the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Ao Ieong U; the Chief of Office of the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Ho Ioc San; the President of the Cultural Affairs Bureau, Leong Wai Man; the Deputy Director of the Education and Youth Development Bureau, Teng Sio Hong; and the Student Ambassador of Culture of the Cultural Affairs Bureau, Min U Ian. The Chief Executive of the Macao SAR Government, Ho Iat Seng, presided over the opening ceremony accompanied by the officiating guests. The Bairro da Ilha Verde Library is officially open, becoming a public cultural facility for preservation and dissemination of knowledge in the district of Ilha Verde.

The Ilha Verde Library located at Avenida da Concórdia, Edifício “May Fair Garden” failed to meet the increasing reading demand of reading materials of the residents. As an important project of the SAR Government to develop Macao as a “City of Reading”, the Bairro da Ilha Verde Library occupies an area of 1,060 square metres, doubling that of the Ilha Verde Library and providing more functional public reading spaces for residents. The library houses nearly 28,000 books and nearly 2,000 audio-visual materials and offers nearly 200 reading seats, as well as a children’s reading area, a multimedia hall, a periodicals area, a reading area, a study area, multifunction rooms, and group discussion rooms, thus providing residents and students of the neighbouring areas with a comprehensive public library for shared learning, leisure, and socialising. The Bairro da Ilha Verde Library opened on the day of the closure of the Ilha Verde Library.

In order to encourage city-wide reading, IC continues to launch “Toddler Reading Reward Programme” for local young children, and has accelerated the digitalization of library collections and provided residents with diverse electronic resources, such as e-books and audiobooks for children. Moreover, IC has also been actively developing an “Online Reading Platform” and regularly rolls out activities such as “Book for Book”, and “POP-UP” Library in an effort to forge a stable platform for book exchange and increase the circulation of reading resources in the community, thus promoting the concept of “enriching life through reading”.

The Bairro da Ilha Verde Library is located at No. 122, Rua de Lei Pou Chôn, Edf. do Bairro da Ilha Verde, Block II, 1 andar B, Macao, and is open on Mondays, from 2pm to 8pm, and Tuesdays to Sundays, from 8am to 8pm (closes at 2pm on Chinese New Year Eve and on public holidays). For enquiries, please contact the public library counter of the Cultural Affairs Bureau through tel. no. 2882 7101 during opening hours, or visit the website of the Public Library of the Cultural Affairs Bureau at www.library.gov.mo or the mobile application “My Library”.

Other guests including the Adviser of the Office of the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Lo Hou Chi; and representatives of associations and of the sector, also attended the opening ceremony.