The Mission places great importance on capacity building—training people in conservation and maintenance of manuscripts. Preventive conservation workshops provide practical training on maintenance and storage of manuscripts. Our training programmes include-

The 3-day workshops are organised to create a reserve pool of conservators whose services are utilized by the Mission to carry out preventive conservation and re-organisation of manuscript collections.

We have till now conducted 3 such workshops in Delhi (July 2006), Aligarh (August 2006) and Chennai (October 2006).

All the Manuscript Conservation Partner Centres (MCPC) have been divided into 10 zones and a workshop for MCPC staff is organised in each zone. The training covers practical sessions on preventive treatment of manuscripts, reorganization of their storage conditions and tips on disaster management. There are about 30 participants in a workshop who are trained directly by the conservators at the Mission.

So far, the Mission has conducted MCPC workshops in 3 zones at Jaipur (October 2006), Bhubaneswar (October 2006) and Lucknow (November 2006).

The national level Surveys and Post Surveys are the most effective way of locating each and every manuscript in the country. Hence, conservation efforts have been combined with this exhaustive mapping exercise. The Surveyors are taught basic tips for handling and storage of manuscripts. They are also equipped with handy kits (comprising of muslin cloth for cleaning manuscripts, de-starched red cloth for wrapping, glove, masks and cotton) to distribute to manuscript holders.

Conservation training has combined with the Survey exercise in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.

A three day training programmed for the students of M.A (conservation) was organized at NMM from 17th -19th June 2008. Students were given specialized training on conservation, storage and reorganization of Manuscripts. Training programmed was attended by 20 students from NMI and DIHRM.

A four day workshop on “conservation of palm leaf manuscripts ” was held at INTACH-ICI Bhubaneshwar centre from 17th to 20th November 2008. Around 25 participants from different Museums, Libraries and institution attended the workshop.

A three day workshop on “Conservation of palm Leaf Manuscripts” was jointly organized by NMM and Regional conservation Laboratory, Thiruvanathapuram (MCC) from 29th to 31st December 2008. There were 30 Participants from various MCPC’s in Tamilnadu and Kerala.

A six days workshop was organized jointly by NMM and Karnataka State Archives on “Preventive Conservation of Manuscripts” from 19th January to 24th January 2009. Around 30 participants benefited from the training imparted by the experts of NMM, RCL Mysore and INTACH.

A six days workshop and Awareness was organized jointly by NMM and Karnataka State Archives on “Preservation and Modi Kannada Script Manuscripts” from 18th May to 23th May 2009.

See Calender Of Events for future training schedules