In 2005, the Google Books Library Project approached the Harvard University Library with a proposition. Harvard would join four other research libraries in scanning its books for what Google hoped would become an international online collection under the corporation’s control.

Harvard agreed to take part, and Google proceeded to scan 850,000 of Harvard’s books in the public domain.

The Google Books Library Project represented the most ambitious mission to date to create an online collection. A pet project of Google co-founder Larry Page, it aimed to scan every book in existence.

But Darnton says he began to question what he considered the program’s sloppy workflow. Some famous works were miscategorized—Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass” was filed under “Gardening,” he says—and unanticipated costs popped up on Harvard’s balance sheet.

“We spent $1.9 million on the ‘free’ project,” Darnton says.

While scanning is costly, it accounts for only part of the associated costs. For every volume requested by Google, library staff members had to check out the book and make sure it was strong enough to endure the transportation, meticulously cataloging its journey.

Darnton says that when Google pressed for copyrighted books, it crossed a line that would fracture the partnership and set the stage for DPLA.

In October 2008, following a $125 million settlement between Google and the Authors Guild that extended the life of the program, Harvard backed out. Citing legal risks involved in digitizing copyright protected materials, the University announced it would not continue its partnership with Google.

The company spent the next two years defending the new settlement against Justice Department inquiries into possible anti-trust violations.

But the courts said no. In his March 2011 decision, Judge Denny Chin wrote in a statement that the Google Books Library Project would represent a “significant advantage over competitors, rewarding it for engaging in wholesale copying of copyrighted works without permission.” Google is appealing the court decision.

But Harvard faculty and the DPLA steering committee were already underway with the Google Books Library Project’s little cousin.

POST-GOOGLE

As a scholar of the French Revolution, Darnton says he uses “the word ‘revolutionary’ with caution.”

But when referring to the DPLA project, Darnton genuinely calls its mission as “revolutionary as during the Gutenberg period.”

After securing a donation from the Sloan Foundation in December 2010, the DPLA had collected enough capital to enter its planning phase. And with the Library of Congress and Smithsonian Institution’s quick support, the DPLA has garnered a formidable pool from which to draw.