Interlibrary Loan Services

Added:
Jul 24, 2018 8:46 am
Modified:
Jul 26, 2018 7:38 am
Track Changes ***REVISION OF NAICS CODE to 518210.***
This is a Small Business Sources Sought notice. The NAICS code for this Small Business Sources Sought notice is revised to: 518210-Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services.

This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, or quotations. The purpose of this notice is to obtain information regarding: (1) the availability and capability of qualified small business sources; (2) whether they are small businesses; HUBZone small businesses; service-disabled, veteran-owned small businesses; 8(a) small businesses; veteran-owned small businesses; woman-owned small businesses; or small disadvantaged businesses; and (3) their size classification relative to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for the proposed acquisition.
Your responses to the information requested will assist the Government in determining

the appropriate acquisition method, including whether a set-aside is possible. An organization that is not considered a small business under the applicable NAICS code should not submit a response to this notice.
All responsible sources may submit a capability statement which will be considered by the National Library of Medicine. This Sources Sought Notice is not a Request for Quotations (RFQ), nor is an RFQ available.
Interested firms responding to this Sources Sought Notice must provide a capability statement that displays the following:
(a) Microsoft Word or PDF file in 12 point font;
(b) DUNS number, organization name, address, point of contact, and size and type of business (e.g., 8(a), HUBZone, etc) pursuant to the applicable NAICS code);
(c) Technical and administrative points of contact, including names, titles, addresses, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail addresses;
(d) Staff expertise, including their availability, experience, and formal and other training;
(e) Current in-house capability and capacity to perform the work;
(f) Prior completed projects of similar nature;
(g) Corporate experience and management capability; and
(h) Examples of prior completed Government contracts, references, and other related information.
The capability statement should contain enough sufficient detail for the Government to make an informed decision regarding your capabilities; however, the statement should not exceed 6 pages (excluding attachments.)
This sources sought notice requires capability statements to be submitted via eCPS.:
1) Electronic copy via the NLM electronic Contract Proposal Submission (eCPS) website at https://ecps.nih.gov/. For directions on using eCPS, go to https://ecps.nih.gov/home/howto
NOTE: To submit your electronic capability statement using eCPS, all offerors must have a valid NIH External Directory Account, which provides authentication and serves as a vehicle for secure transmission of documents and communication with the NLM. The NIH External Directory Account registration process may take up to 24 hours to become active. Submission of proposals by facsimile or e-mail is not accepted.
All capability statements must be submitted electronically no later than 10:00am Eastern time on August 3rd, 2018 via the method indicated above.
Disclaimer and Important Notes: This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in response. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization's qualifications to perform the work. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. After a review of the responses received, a pre-solicitation synopsis and solicitation may be published in Federal Business Opportunities. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation.
Confidentiality: No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response. The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information in any resultant solicitation(s).
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DRAFT Statement of Work
I. General Information
A. Background Information
The mission of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) is to collect, preserve and disseminate biomedical information. In support of this mission, NLM has assembled one of the largest collections of biomedical literature in the world. NLM makes its collections available onsite as well as to the global library community by offering Interlibrary Loan ( ILL) services.
NLM lends its materials to a variety of academic, public, health science, and government libraries and organizations throughout the United States and internationally. The majority of requests are for scanned copies of journal articles, book chapters, conference papers, and other brief publications, however NLM also lends print copies of monographs, audiovisuals, and microforms to borrowing institutions located within the United States. Original materials that are loaned are shipped via commercial courier second day delivery.
NLM uses a variety of systems to route, track and fill interlibrary loan requests, including DOCLINE, NLM's internally developed and maintained ILL request routing and referral system, as well as other systems to produce statistical reports and verify citations (See Appendix 1 at the end of this document).
B. Place of Performance
All activities shall be performed onsite at the Library in space provided by NLM. In general, activities shall be performed Monday through Friday, as necessary, during regular business hours, typically 7:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Contractor staff shall not work on weekends, Federal holidays, or when the Government is closed for weather-related or other emergencies. Individual schedules for contractor staff and any subsequent schedule changes must be approved by the Contracting Officer's Representative (COR) or the Technical Monitor.
D. Services to be Provided
The services contemplated under this contract include project management; retrieval and shelving of NLM's print, microform, and audiovisual collection items that are requested through interlibrary loan; identifying or downloading, scanning, or photocopying articles, book chapters, and other published resources and delivering these to requesting institutions via electronic means; processing outgoing and incoming physical loans in NLM's integrated library system; packing, preparing, and shipping items requested by other institutions using a courier service and unpacking and processing items returned to NLM by a borrowing institution.
The contractor shall perform the work set forth below and shall be responsible for the professional quality, technical accuracy, and coordination of all facets of such work. The contractor shall, without additional compensation, correct or revise any errors or deficiencies in workmanship or other services.
Independently, and not as an agent of the Government, the contractor shall furnish all necessary labor and services and perform the work set forth in the tasks outlined in this Statement of Work.
The contractor shall handle NLM collection materials, which are often irreplaceable, carefully and thoughtfully. The contractor shall follow the guidelines provided in the appendices at the end of this document.
II. Specific Activities
Activity 1: Project Management
The contractor shall provide an onsite Project Manager to oversee the personnel working under this contract.
The Project Manager shall assign work to contract staff and implement quality control measures to ensure that all aspects of contract work are accurate. The Contracting Officer's Representative (COR), any Technical Monitors, and the Project Manager will provide training and written instructions to contract staff as required for contract work. For each year of the contract, the level of effort required for this activity is one (1) Project Manager.
The Project Manager shall maintain statistical records and submit monthly reports describing progress and accomplishments of each month, including any problems encountered that impact performance and/or productivity. If there is a problem with contract staff performance, the COR will consult with the Project Manager to resolve the matter. If performance does not improve, NLM reserves the right to request the contractor replace staff on the contract.
Activity 2: Library Technician Services
The contractor shall provide library technicians to support NLM interlibrary loan activities. The contract library technicians shall report to the Project Manager, and the Project Manager shall perform quality control on all work performed by the library technicians.
The library technicians shall:
• Routinely monitor the electronic journals queue between the hours of 7:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., daily.
• Print and accept incoming interlibrary loan requests.
• Review and analyze requests for adequate bibliographic information, such as author, title, call number, volume, issue, date of publication and complete page numbering. Read any special instructions provided by the requesting institution, such as not to fill a request if it is in a foreign language, requests for title and copyright pages, and similar notations.
• Search the NLM integrated library system to identify electronic resources following NLM procedures, and download requested journal articles, book chapters, etc.
• As appropriate, retrieve books, journals, microforms, and AV materials from NLM collection areas.
• Examine physical volumes to determine whether scanning is appropriate or possible due to the condition of the item and refer any materials in poor condition to NLM staff for further consideration.
• Scan journal articles, book chapters, and other information, from books and journals based on an individual interlibrary loan request.
• Process requests and deliver them electronically to requesting institutions.
• Prepare items requested for loan to be shipped to the requesting institution via courier following applicable guidelines provided by the courier to the requesting library and deliver them to the appropriate area designated for the courier and retrieve and process returned items from the same area as appropriate. (See Appendix VIII at the end of this document)
• Reshelve materials in the collections once scanning is completed or loans are returned to NLM.
Detailed written and verbal instructions for each activity will be provided to the contractor after award. For additional guidance, sample instructions are provided in the appendices.
Activity 3: Contract Support Services
ensure uninterrupted interlibrary loan service for NLM and to institutions using this service. These activities include:
• Maintenance agreements for equipment used to support the interlibrary loan process including scanners, barcode readers, printers, and photocopiers
• Purchase of replacement equipment for interlibrary loan operations as existing equipment reaches end of lifecycle and based on specifications provided by NLM
• Supplies; including paper, toner, pens, pencils, and other items necessary to complete the work
III. Vendor Requirements
The contractor shall provide experienced and skilled personnel in the performance of this contact. The Government suggests the following labor categories: Project Manager and Library Technician for the performance of tasks related to the processing of interlibrary loan requests. The contractor is responsible for providing all personnel and materials necessary to perform in accordance with this Statement of Work.
All contractor staff shall perform physical tasks such as retrieving and shelving physical items in NLM stack areas, pushing booktrucks, and, as necessary, climbing stairs. They also shall reach to shelve items on the top shelves which can be approximately 80 inches above floor level. Step stools are available throughout the stack floors to assist staff in reaching high shelves.
The COR or designee has the right to evaluate and approve key staff assigned to work on the contract. The COR or designee must be notified of and approve all changes in staffing after award. Resumes must be submitted and approved prior to placement of personnel.
Key Personnel:
Project Manager
The Project Manager shall have at least three years of supervisory or project management experience. The Project Manager shall have the ability to plan, train, supervise, and evaluate the work of paraprofessional staff. In addition to supervisory and project management experience, the Project Manager's experience shall also have at least three years of experience in the following areas: 1) interpreting bibliographic data elements and searching for bibliographic records in an integrated library system; 2) searching for and identifying electronic journal articles and downloading them as required; 3) performing all interlibrary loan tasks including processing requests in an integrated library system; 4) preparing statistical reports.
Other Personnel:
Library Technician
All Library Technicians shall have at least one year of recent experience in library services including interpreting bibliographic data elements, searching for books and journals in an integrated library system, searching for and identifying electronic journal articles and downloading them as required, ability to utilize bibliographic citations to correctly identify items requests through interlibrary loan as well as to retrieve items from a library's collection; ability to utilize a scanner. All technicians will be trained in performing all activities outlined in the Statement of Work, with the exception of tasks to be performed by the Project Manager.
IV. Government Responsibilities
The Government shall provide:
a. Onsite workstations and equipment at NLM necessary for the contractor staff to perform bibliographic searching and scanning, as well as access codes and software required for contractor tasks at the start of the contract.
b. Work area sufficient for printing and processing requests, as well as storage space for office shipping supplies, equipment, and computer hardware and/or software as needed to perform the work.
The COR shall monitor all work under this contract. The COR will meet weekly with the Project Manager to discuss any problems, concerns, or needs related to policies and procedures, quality assurance, and performance.
NLM shall provide the required training on NLM and ILL-related systems and databases required to complete tasks listed in the Statement of Work. Training will include basic searching techniques and hands-on activities. Thereafter, when staff are replaced or added, the Project Manager shall be responsible for any training required. Additional training on new systems needed by the Contractor will be provided as new systems are introduced or when existing systems are modified.
V. Transition Period
A transition period is needed in the event the predecessor Contractor for the Document Delivery and First Level Search Contract is not selected for award of the successor contract. The transition period is anticipated to require approximately 2 weeks and shall be coordinated between the Contracting Office, COR, and Contractor.
At the end of this contract, it is anticipated that this requirement shall be recompeted. In the event the incumbent Contractor is not successful in receiving the award of the successor contract, the Contractor shall work with the successor Contractor in order to transition support responsibilities. The Contractor staff must possess the capability to transfer to the successor Contractor knowledge gained for undocumented routines and workflows.
The transition activities shall include necessary steps to transfer information and provide training to the successor Contractor staff while ensuring completion of the requirements during this approximate two-week transition period. Information to be transferred and training to be provided includes, but is not limited to, attending briefings, walkthroughs, planning meetings, hands-on training, etc. Specifically, the incumbent contractor shall
• Continue to support the entire workflow and tasks as specified in the Statement of Work.
• Provide training to the successor contractor's key personnel and staff on all activities related to the Statement of Work.
• Provide any training documentation to the successor contractor in print and electronic form.
• Ensure that statistical reports and reporting methodologies are available to NLM staff.
The transition activities from the current contract to the successor contract shall include, at a minimum, the following responsibilities:
1. On the first day of the transition period, and for approximately ten working days thereafter, the Contractor shall have onsite at NLM the key personnel and staff sufficient to support the retrieval, scanning, photocopying, and inspection of ILL requests.
2. During the phase-out period, the incumbent Contractor shall also provide training to the successor Contractor in accordance with the following schedule. Training shall be provided during normal business hours each day, five days a week, excluding Federal holidays. Any changes in the scheduled work time stated above shall be approved by the COR prior to the effective change. The Contractor staff shall not work or allow non-authorized Contractor personnel into the NLM stacks after work hours, or when the Library is closed, without prior approval from the COR.