Library

Hewlett-Packard today announced a definitive agreement to purchase Texas-based Electronic Data Systems for $13.9 billion, in a deal that could bolster the high-tech giant's efforts to compete with IBM in the fast-growing market for technology consulting services.

The acquisition will more than double HP's business providing services to corporate and government clients, according to CEO Mark Hurd, who said it will make HP "a leading force in the global IT industry."

Altarama announced that it has acquired the VRLplus business from the Docutek division Docutek division of SirsiDynix, Inc.The Virtual Reference Librarian plus (VRLplus) system is used to provide live reference services over the web by more than 200 academic, public, special, and school libraries, and consortia in North American, Europe, and Australasia.

BOSTON - Two election officials will be honored at the John F. Kennedy Library for their efforts to maintain the integrity of the vote in their respective states.

California Secretary of State Debra Bowen and Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner will each be presented a Profile in Courage Award Monday. The annual awards are named for a 1957 Pulitzer Prize-winning book authored by John F. Kennedy.

The Internet Archive protested the receipt of a National Security Letter from the FBI back in November. Today it won its case.

The Internet Archive, a project to create a digital library of the web for posterity, successfully fought a secret government Patriot Act order for records about one of its patrons and won the right to make the order public, civil liberties groups announced this morning.

[By way of the NYT]...according to All Things Digital (owned by the Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones), the newspaper reported on its Web site that Microsoft's bankers put out subtle signals to Facebook, the social networking Web site, to see if it would be open to a full acquisition.

From PressZoom (Netherlands), Jim Cheng, head librarian for the University of California, San Diego’s International Relations & Pacific Studies ( IR/PS ) Library, has been named a “2008 Mover & Shaker ” by the Library Journal ( LJ ) for his innovative work in developing an unprecedented Asian film collection and festival and symposium series.

If they want a new library, they won't be able to use the old one for awhile.

The $8M project calls for temporary closure of Schenectady Main Library; over 1,400 daily library patrons will be forced to seek other options while the library is closed for a year or more. The building, opened about 40 years ago, is at Clinton and Liberty streets, sandwiched between City Hall and police headquarters.

OhioLINK is pleased to announce the release of a finding aid creation application, repository, and full-text search engine at . The EAD Finding Aid Creation Tool and OhioLINK Repository (EAD FACTORy) will help archivists ensure broad-based access to archival collections and local history collections by providing a solution for institutions wishing to create and deliver finding aids according to the Encoded Archival Description standard. Finding aids are descriptive tools that come in a variety of formats and levels of detail that describe the contents of archival or manuscript collections.

Salman Rushdie, Francine Prose, Edward Albee, Rick Moody and Ma Jian will be among the writers attending a press conference Thursday, May 1, at which the PEN American Center will announce the delivery later that morning of a petition to the Chinese Mission to the United Nations. The petition demands the release of 39 writers and journalists imprisoned in China who PEN believes have been jailed for exercising their right to speak and write freely, which is guaranteed under Chinese and international law.

PR Newswire announced today that Finding Dulcinea has launched a Spanish-language version of its Web Guides which includes:
"How to Search the Web," "Health," "U.S. Politics," "Immigration," "Cinco de Mayo" and "Survival Guide toNew York City." FindingDulcinea (Librarian of the Internet) plans to add more Spanish-language Web Guides in the future, based on user feedback.