The Shrine of the Book, which opened in 1965, was entrusted with the display and preservation of the Scrolls. The Israel Museum's restoration team together with the staff of the Shrine of the Book, have tried their utmost to maintain the condition of the scrolls and prevent their deterioration, but as precise preservation techniques and maintenance procedures to be followed were hitherto unknown, conservation of the scrolls has been a matter of trial and error for about fifty years. New techniques to arrest deterioration of the scrolls and repair any damage caused in the past were long overdue and, indeed, crucial. Consequently the Israel Antiquities Authority turned for help to the Getty Conservation Institute in California, the world's leading conservation facility. An extensive, in-depth study was carried out by the Institute's scientific team, and based on its findings and recommendations, the Shrine of the Book, in 1997, started a long-term restoration program to improve the state of the eight scrolls in its possession. Each scroll fragment, both those on display in the Shrine of the Book and those kept in a specially secured room, undergoes special treatment by experts in the conservation laboratories of the Israel Antiquities Authority. Treatment includes thorough cleaning, flattening, mending with Japanese tissue, and other conservation procedures.

As part of our effort to create more suitable conditions for preserving and displaying the scrolls in the Shrine of the Book, a prototype for a new showcase has been devised to test display techniques (such as fiber optic lighting and positioning the scrolls at an angle of no more than 35 degrees) which are in keeping with world standards. If this experiment succeeds, all the showcases in the Shrine of the Book will be replaced.