The urgency to preserve the manuscripts of a nation whose literary life has continued through sixteen centuries was apparent. Aside from the important manuscript collections belonging to the Institute of Ethiopian Studies at Addis Ababa University and to the National Library, the majority of Ethiopian manuscripts are in the possession of monasteries, churches, and individual owners who are sometimes unaware of their value. Collections in areas remote from the capital are at times inadequately stored and lack protection from fire and deterioration.

Political upheavals in Ethiopia affected the project. In 1974, the armed forces took power in Ethiopia, and the political atmosphere created by the new military socialist government forced the resignation of the director. The joint project was interrupted in 1987, but filming continued until 1991. Unfortunately, a second wave of upheaval then prevented the resumption and extension of microfilming from Shoa to the major regions of literary tradition, such as Gonder, Gojjam, Tigray, and Eritrea. There are still microfilms in Ethiopia that have yet to be shipped to the United States, and there are hopes that filming will begin again.

Collections microfilmed include those of the famed monasteries Däbrä Hayq, Däbrä Libanos, and Däbrä Jämäddu and those of the rock-hewn churches of Lalibäla, where the capital of medieval Ethiopia was once located. Among the manuscripts now preserved on microfilm are the oldest texts of virtually every book of the Ethiopic Old Testament, including important intertestamental books such as the Book of Enoch, which survived in its entirety only in Ethiopia. Many previously unknown compositions of Ethiopian literature have been discovered, and new light on the history of Ethiopia has been shed by the royal charters and similar documents that were copied on the blank pages of many of the manuscripts.