The Boston Globe Looks At the Google Library Project, and Harvard. The value of the project to the ”mega libraries” like Harvard’s is enormous. Before Google came along, professor Sidney Verba had looked into digitizing the Harvard library. It was an obvious way to protect the 15 million volumes against normal wear and tear and against the possibility of fire or other destruction.
But Verba came up against two big problems: The cost was enormous, and the technology was such that it threatened to damage the precious old works it was seeking to preserve. When Google first approached Verba with the library project Verba thought that they were ”smoking something.” Nearly a year later, however, they came back with new technology that does not damage the old books and with an offer even a wealthy institution can’t pass up — they offered to give Harvard a digital copy of all their books — for free.
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