The vice-president of the municipality of Aljezur, Maria Silva, has disclosed that this municipality in the Algarve is getting ready to purchase a van that will act as a mobile library, following the approval of a request for European assistance. Maria Silva claims that the municipality is currently in the "vehicle acquisition phase" and that "the contracts have already been signed”.

“Residents will be able to access an itinerant medium that provides services for consulting book catalogues, borrowing these books and other digital media,” the vice-president of Aljezur City Council, Maria Silva, told Lusa. As stated by Maria Silva, Aljezur partnered with four other towns (Marvão, Terras de Bouro, Vila Viçosa, and Calheta de São Jorge) to receive support for a mobile library service. Besides the request for the travelling library, the council also requested help with IT modernisation.

Minister Dalila Rodrigues has shared that “When we think about geographic scope, we choose the library, from a series of programs that will dynamise, transform and develop this body that is not part of the Ministry of Culture and that, therefore, foresees program contracts between the Ministry of Culture and the local authorities”.

The Recovery and Resilience Plan’s support, announced by the Directorate-General for Books, Archives and Libraries at the end of 2021 enabled the provision of itinerant services to the five municipalities listed above which didn’t have one and allowed for the modernisation of computer systems in the spaces of the National Network of Public Libraries.