HMML is currently digitizing manuscripts in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Egypt, Gaza, Great Britain, India, Iraq, Italy, Lebanon, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Montenegro, Nepal, Pakistan, and Yemen.
HMML's mission is to preserve and share the world's handwritten past to inspire a deeper understanding of our present and future.
[3] Additionally, HMML's reference collection holds approximately 50,000 volumes on topics related to manuscripts, printed books, art, and liturgy.
The work in Ethiopia began 1974 continued throughout 1980s and into the early 1990s, with cameras operating as the country underwent political upheaval and civil war.
[15] Microfilm copies of these manuscripts were made widely available through extensive cataloging by Professor Getatchew Haile and his colleague, Dr. William Macomber.
[23][24] Mali is home to HMML's largest preservation project to date, resulting in approximately 3.6 million unique image files representing more than 249,000 manuscripts.
[25] The project focuses on the West African Islamic traditions found in the libraries and manuscripts of Timbuktu, Djenné, and other locations.
[26] HMML partnered with several organizations to complete this work, including the NGO SAVAMA-DCI,[27] which helped digitize hundreds of thousands of manuscripts that had been evacuated from Timbuktu to Bamako before the rebel occupation of the city in 2012.
[32] HMML has photographed manuscripts located in Africa (Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, and South Africa), Asia (India, Nepal,[33] Pakistan, and Turkey), Europe (Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, Montenegro, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and Ukraine), the Middle East (Gaza, Iraq, Jerusalem, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen), and North America (United States).
Dumbarton Oaks has partnered with HMML since 2016 to sponsor these courses, which have included the study of Syriac, Classical Armenian, and Coptic.
[41] HMML also offers a year-round program of temporary exhibits of manuscripts and rare books drawn from its collections, as well as public events and travel opportunities.