Inaugurated on November 6, 1993, it carries the name of one of the most illustrious citizens of Portimão and a recognised writer, the Manuel Teixeira Gomes Municipal Library is today a special space for reading and connecting with the universe of literature. Promoting and developing several services and activities, which contribute to the free community access to knowledge, culture and information, it is the great mission of this space, which is part of municipal cultural infrastructures and belongs to the National Network of Public Libraries and the Algarve Municipal Libraries Network.
Municipal libraries are centres of democracy, which encourage and promote the involvement of the entire community, therefore the Municipal Library of Portimão continues to invest in in life-long learning and contribute with activities and services – in person and online- aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda.
- Community
- Contests
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Offers
The Library welcomes offers from individuals, institutions or alternative projects
The Municipal Library of Portimão accepts offers of documents, except for:- School textbooks (outside the textbook collection campaign that always takes place in September), encyclopaedias, photocopied documents, outdate multimedia, in discontinued format or in poor condition;
- Scratched, damaged or in poor condition copies;
- Titles with outdated content.
The Library reserves the right to dispose of the offers according to what it considers more convenient for the Documentary Collection, and these offers may or may not be integrated in the collection.
Documents that do not become part of the collection may be offered to other institutions, integrated into projects or sent for recycling.
The copies, once offered, cannot be returned to the offeror.
- Digital
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Manuel Teixeira Gomes Reading Club
Manuel Teixeira Gomes Reading Club - 20 years of Reading
The cognitive, economic and social benefits generated by the practice of reading have been widely studied and demonstrated. The Reading Clubs are one of the most efficient initiatives to promote this practice, contributing to the growth of reading habits, the pleasure of reading and to the development of reading skills. There are many Reading Clubs which, thanks to the social interaction between their members, stimulated in an active, vigilant and creative way by their moderators, promote this work with great success, assiduously bringing together groups of people who meet to discuss books and reading in a presence, online or mixed context.
The Manuel Teixeira Gomes Reading Club was created in 2002, having obtained a grant to support its development from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation's Scholarship Service. It started with two groups of 20 members aged between 18 and 78 years old.
All the books, and there have been over 200, are a discovery for everyone, through them voices of loyalty to certain writers are raised, characters are dethroned and other texts, other stories are evoked.
Taken by the hot tea, each member vents what was left in the silence of their reading. More than sharing ideas or experiences, the members wish to give (without sometimes receiving in return) what touched them in each page, in each sentence, they share regrets, laughter, ironies, expressions such as "I cried so much", "I want to read more by this author", "I didn't like it", "I set it aside".
In each session, on average 15 members are present and the books are either purchased by the Municipality of Portimão or lent by other Reading Clubs in Algarve.
The initial objective remains the same: to continue reading the same book at the same time and, on an agreed day and time, members get together to comment on the pages read.
With Clarice Lispector we learned about the daily life of families and we talked about ours, with "The Sleeping Beauty goes to school" we dethroned a king to awaken up the princesses of our History. Teixeira Gomes allowed us to talk a lot about the peculiar people and customs of the Algarve.
The poet who got married has been forgotten by some, or was not even read by others, so Skármeta will be our next reading, because over the years, some stopped appearing and others become honorary members, but every year, the Reading Club welcomes new members, they come into the sessions with an open mind to share their experiences, waiting to hear different images and interpretations of the same passages read. They come from Canada, from Lagos, Ferragudo, Lisbon or Portalegre, they are foreigners in their own homes, they bring news from there and they take our readings with them.
Many writers have also shared with us what they felt when they wrote those stories. Pepetela, Mário de Carvalho, Maria do Vale Cartaxo, Mia Couto, Gonçalo M. Tavares, António Manuel Venda, Hernán Neira, Joaquim Mestre, José Luís Peixoto, Luandino Vieira, Pedro Sena-Lino, António Lobo Antunes.
We shared experiences and exchanged suggestions with Reading Clubs from neighbouring Andalusia. We went to the theatre, the cinema, we listened to music, had dinner and drank hot chocolate, always with a book in our hands and stories in our minds.
We shared many ideas, about what Reading Clubs are, how they work and how to keep them active when we organised the 1st Algarve Reading Clubs Meeting, an event attended by 250 members of reading clubs. We visited churches, museums and got to know other libraries.
We read Portuguese, classics, current and foreign. We read Italians, Hungarians, Americans and Iranians. “Budapest" comes with Chico Buarque de Holanda. We also went through the former Yugoslavia with “Sarajevo Marlboro" and looked at Russian culture with "Sónetchka" and Ivan Bunin with "The love of Mítya" or an "Invitation to a Beheading" by Nabokov.
Many readings still gave way to creative writing courses, laughter and words workshops, and talks on comparative literature with Paula Mendes Coelho where the priest is analysed on Paula Rego's canvases, we also listened to stories for adults, surfed the Internet and created Facebook profiles. We had erotic poetry sessions, almost ragged odes and lots of conversations. We celebrated the Kings' Day with cakes and Port Wine, we tasted Indian and Iranian recipes, ate roasted chestnuts and drank ginjinha, we also skinned sardines in August. We read poetry, drama, detective stories, children's stories, biographies, chronicles and news. We were also featured in local newspapers.
Today, more than ever, 20 years later, it is worth having the courage to remember these readings, these people, who read, who feel what they read and make reading and books their home, and the Public Library proves this. At a time of returning to normality without masks, it is worth having the courage to share, to conquer individually, to read alone and accompanied, to be present. It is important to have the courage to say that you have not read it, that you are going to read it, that you will see it soon.
Monthly sessions - 9pm - members only.
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For Question
• Chief of Library and Documentation Division
Estela Belchior, Senior Technician
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• Support to the Reading Centres
Abílio Carvalho, Technical Assistant
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• Support Central Library
Ana Lourenço, Technical Assistant
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• Education Service/School Libraries Support
Ana Magina, Senior Technician
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• Education Service / Complementary Activities of Educational Action
Isabel Jordão, Technical Assistant
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• Education Service/Family Activities
Cristina Rodrigues, Senior Technician
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• Reader Support
Cristina Augusto, Senior Technician
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• Reading Suggestions
Patricia Borralho, Technical Assistant
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• Offers
Piedade Romão Bartolomeu, Technical Assistant
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• Logistics and Technical Needs
Rolando Rebelo, Technical Assistant
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• Logistics and Technical Needs
Patricia Borralho,Technical Assistant
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• Leasing of space
Carla Nunes, Technical Assistant
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• Library consultation
Fátima Silva, Technical Assistant
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• Local and Regional Fund
Virgínia Maio, Technical Assistant
Contact - Reader Support
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Network
People need open and welcoming libraries, where mutual respect for values, feelings and opinions is promoted.
In the Portimão Library there is space for anyone who wants to realize a show, a concert or launch its first book. There is a room for everyone and we give space to everyone.
We want that this space can be a safe place for the information, in a time when information is coming at us all the time and there is such disinformation.
Keeping our community informed is one of our concerns.
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