Conversation so far:
What caused controversies for the New York Public Library?
The consolidations and changes in collections have promoted debate and controversy since 2004 when David Ferriero was named the Andrew W. Mellon Director and Chief Executive of the Research Libraries
What were some of the innovations to the New York Public Library?
In 2004 NYPL announced participation in the Google Books Library Project, which was criticized.
What was the New York Public Library's role in the Google Books Library Project?
By agreement between Google and NYPL and other libraries, selected collections of public domain books would be scanned in their entirety and made available online for free to the public
What year did the New York Public Library decide they were going to start this collection?
In 2004 NYPL announced participation in the Google Books Library Project.
Does the article state the New York Public Library's and Google's reason behind making the books and collection this way?
The negotiations between the NYPL and Google called for each to project guesses about ways that libraries are likely to expand in the future

Question: Was the idea succcessful or did it have downfalls?
Self-contained rewrite: Was the New York Public Library's Google Books Library Project idea succcessful or did it have downfalls?