Virtual Library of Virginia

Request for Proposal

RFP AME-676

MLA International Bibliography
February 6, 2013


REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL

RFP # AME-676

Issue Date: February 6, 2013

Title: MLA International Bibliography

Issuing Agency: Commonwealth of Virginia

VIVA/James Madison University

Procurement Services MSC 5720

752 Ott Street, Wine Price Bldg.

First Floor, Suite 1023

Harrisonburg, VA 22807

Period of Contract: From Date of Award Through One Year (Renewable)

Sealed Proposals Will Be Received Until 2:30 p.m. on March 6, 2013 For Furnishing The Services Described Herein.

Sealed proposals may be MAILED, EXPRESS MAILED, OR HAND DELIVERED DIRECTLY TO THE ISSUING AGENCY SHOWN ABOVE.

All Inquiries For Information and Clarification Should Be Directed To: AMANDA ECHERLING, VCO, Buyer Senior Procurement Services, 540/5683133, , not later than five business days before the proposal closing date.

NOTE: THE SIGNED PROPOSAL AND ATTACHMENTS A AND B SHALL BE RETURNED

In compliance with this Request for Proposal and to all the conditions imposed herein, the undersigned offers and agrees to furnish the goods/services in accordance with the attached signed proposal or as mutually agreed upon by subsequent negotiation.

Name and Address of Firm:

By:

(Signature in Ink)

Name:

(Please Print)

Title:

Date: Phone:

Web Address: Fax #:

Email:

SMALL, WOMAN OR MINORITY OWNED BUSINESS:

ÿ YES; ÿ NO; IF YES ⇒⇒ ÿ SMALL; ÿ WOMAN; ÿ MINORITY IF MINORITY: ÿ AA; ÿ HA; ÿ AsA; ÿ NW

Note: This public body does not discriminate against faith-based organizations in accordance with the Code of Virginia, § 2.2-4343.1 or against a bidder or offeror because of race, religion, color, sex, national origin, age, disability, or any other basis prohibited by state law relating to discrimination in employment.

Rev. 1/15/13 (Previous Rev 6/27/12) ABS

REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL

RFP # AME-676

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I.  PURPOSE Page 1

II. BACKGROUND Page 1 – 2

III.  SMALL, WOMAN-OWNED AND MINORITY PARTICIPATION Page 2

IV.  STATEMENT OF NEEDS Pages 2 – 10

V. PROPOSAL PREPARATION AND SUBMISSION Pages 10 – 13

VI.  EVALUATION AND AWARD CRITERIA Pages 13

VII.  GENERAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS Pages 13 – 20

VIII.  SPECIAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS Pages 20 – 25

IX.  METHOD OF PAYMENT Page 25

X. PRICING SCHEDULE Pages 25 – 26

XI.  ATTACHMENTS Page 26

A. Offeror Data Sheet - RETURN OF THIS PAGE IS REQUIRED

B. SWaM Utilization Plan - RETURN OF THIS PAGE IS REQUIRED

C. Sample of Standard Contract

D. VIVA Participants

I.  PURPOSE

The purpose of this Request for Proposal (RFP) is to solicit sealed proposals from qualified sources to enter into a contract through competitive negotiations to provide the Modern Language Association (MLA) International Bibliography for the Virtual Library of Virginia (VIVA). Initial contract shall be for one (1) year with an option to renew for nine (9) additional one year periods.

II.  BACKGROUND

The Virtual Library of Virginia (VIVA) is the consortium of the Commonwealth of Virginia’s nonprofit academic libraries serving the higher education community. Members include both the state-assisted (public) and the independent nonprofit (private) colleges and universities. VIVA's mission is to provide, in an equitable, cooperative, and cost-effective manner, enhanced access to library and information resources for the Commonwealth of Virginia's nonprofit academic libraries serving the higher education community.

VIVA has two main areas of activity: 1) shared access to online library resources; and 2) efforts to enhance support of interlibrary lending among the libraries. Projects to support shared access to online library resources include collective subscriptions to remote, online databases; purchase or lease of online databases to be locally mounted at one of the member schools; and digitization projects. Projects to support interlibrary lending include supporting the electronic transmission of articles and e-books, reimbursing document delivery charges incurred by the member libraries, and developing protocols and procedures to achieve a 48-hour response standard for interlibrary lending requests within the Commonwealth.

Since 1994, VIVA has acquired abstracting and indexing databases, as well as full-text journals and e-books for the academic libraries in Virginia. The goal of the present Request for Proposal is to identify a vendor capable of providing the MLA International Bibliography on the subscription model.

VIVA member institutions include all the following:

·  Public Institutions: The public institutions include all 39 state-assisted colleges and universities within the Commonwealth of Virginia, including all 6 doctoral universities, 9 four-year comprehensive institutions, and 24 community and two-year branch colleges (including Richard Bland College of the College of William and Mary and the 23 community colleges of the Virginia Community College System).

·  Private Nonprofit Institutions: From the beginning of the VIVA consortium, the libraries of the Commonwealth's publicly assisted higher education institutions have been joined by the majority of the private, nonprofit colleges and universities in the Commonwealth of Virginia. These independent (private, nonprofit) colleges and universities participate to the maximum extent feasible.

o  From 1994 to the present, a subset of the private institutions has participated in VIVA purchases using their own funds.

o  More recently, state funds have been matched by the private members to create the VIVA Private Pooled Funds and each year a subset (approximately 30-32) of the private nonprofit institutions participate in the Pooled Funds Program. Using these Pooled Funds, VIVA acquires a few selected resources for all participating private nonprofit colleges and universities. The VIVA Pooled Funds are currently used to subscribe to the MLA International Bibliography for the 30-32 private institutions participating in the Pooled Funds Program.

·  Other Research Institutions:

o  The Library of Virginia is a full member in VIVA, participating in licenses relevant to work at the facility in Richmond as local funds allow. The Library of Virginia does not currently subscribe to MLA International Bibliography although they are eligible.

o  In addition, there are a few research facilities included in VIVA. These facilities (e.g., The Institute for Advanced Learning and Research in South Boston and the Roanoke Higher Education Center) do not generate any additional annualized full-time equivalent (FTE) and are included in with the VIVA public institutions at no additional cost.

VIVA issues and will negotiate this RFP on behalf of all members: all 39 public colleges and universities, all 34 nonprofit private colleges and universities, and the Library of Virginia. Pricing shall be included in the RFP response; see section X. Pricing Schedule. See Attachment D for a list of participating institutions, including total numbers of FTE students.

III.  SMALL, WOMAN-OWNED AND MINORITY (SWAM) PARTICIPATION

It is the policy of the Commonwealth of Virginia to contribute to the establishment, preservation, and strengthening of small businesses and businesses owned by women and minorities and to encourage their participation in State procurement activities. The Commonwealth encourages contractors to provide for the participation of small businesses, and businesses owned by women and minorities through partnerships, joint ventures, subcontracts, and other contractual opportunities. Attachment B contains information on reporting spend data with subcontractors.

IV. STATEMENT OF NEEDS

Offeror shall have available and be able to demonstrate the use and functions of the following components and/or features for the MLA International Bibliography as an online database. The database shall fully incorporate the MLA Bibliography Subject Thesaurus, the Names Thesaurus, and the MLA Directory of Periodicals. Offeror shall describe in detail the manner in which each item below is addressed by the database, platform, and offeror services.

A.  Database Description and Coverage

The MLA International Bibliography enables users to find books, articles, dissertations, and electronic resources on languages, literature, folklore, and linguistics. Entries are drawn from over 4,400 journals as well as book, dissertations, and scholarly web sites.

1.  Provide an executive summary of the proposed products and services.

2.  Describe thoroughly the contents of the database version of the MLA International Bibliography being offered including years of coverage.

3.  Describe the frequency of updating the contents.

4.  Describe all contractual relationships with the database publisher.

5.  Describe the vendor’s services and experiences as a database broker.

6.  Describe the method of indexing, depth of indexing provided, and any exclusions from indexing.

7.  Describe the existence, content, and functionality of the thesaurus of search terms.

8.  Provide a current, accurate list of journals covered by the database and list of journals, if any, with full-text coverage.

RELATED PRODUCTS

9.  Describe any provision for access to reference materials indexed by the MLA International Bibliography in either print or electronic format.

10.  Describe any provision for access to the current edition of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers in either print or electronic format.

11.  Describe any full-text content complementary to the citations found in the MLA International Bibliography. Specify the format (HTML, PDF, etc.) of this content.

B.  Technical Requirements –

VIVA endorses the Guidelines for Technical Issues in Request for Proposal (RFP) Requirements and Contract Negotiations developed by the International Coalition of Library Consortia (ICOLC) http://legacy.icolc.net/techreq.html.

1.  General

a. List all supported Internet browsers, including version numbers (e.g., Firefox 18.0.1).

b. Describe the procedures for making library-specific customizations, including user interface and library branding, and indicate whether such changes are handled locally or submitted to the vendor for implementation.

c. Describe in detail the use of all cookies, plug-ins, extensions, and embedded applications required for full product functionality.

d. Describe the procedures for setting up personal user accountsand available customization options within these accounts.

g.  Describe thoroughly the interoperability of the offeror’s version of MLA International Bibliography with current discovery tools, including EBSCO Discovery Service, Primo, Summon, and WorldCat Local.

h.  Describe participation in and implementation of metasearch initiatives (i.e., NISO Metasearch Initiative) and compatibility with commercially available federated search products such as WebFeat, Serials Solutions 360Search, Z39.50, and ExLibris Metalib.

i.  Describe how offeror’s system addresses web accessibility and identify level of compliance with each guideline from the Web Accessibility Initiative Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, including how compliance has been tested and verified.

j.  Specify the version of XHTML with which the offeror's system complies or specify the use of XML.

k.  Describe existing accessibility issues and plans to address them and compliance with standard federal accessibility guidelines.

l.  Describe security and privacy measures for individual accounts and system management of user accounts, for example, when the user is able to save searches or to establish a personalized account (e.g., “My Account.”)

m.  Describe compliance with W3C’s Mobile Web Best Practices http://www.w3.org/TR/mwabp/>.

n.  Describe support for access via mobile devices (e.g., iOS, Android). Describe technical assistance available to mobile users.

2.  Maintenance and Uptime

a.  Describe uptime for the system for the previous year and specify how often the system failed and the duration of the average and longest system failure.

b.  Specify whether the databases are available seven (7) days per week, twenty-four (24) hours per day and describe notification mechanism for planned maintenance and scheduled and unscheduled downtime.

c.  Describe the mechanism for systematic, advance notification of changes in the database, (e.g., notices of changes in system design, scheduled down time, additions and deletions of titles, full-text coverage, etc.) and for the reporting of current problems as they develop.

d.  Describe technical support, including contact for VIVA, response time for service calls, the availability of a technician to answer calls, and the availability of a system status web page.

e.  Describe policies and timing for notifying VIVA of any changes to the design of the offeror’s system requiring changes by VIVA member institutions in order to maintain access to the database.

f.  Describe system monitoring and measures, such as server redundancy, to prevent disruptions in service in the case of system failure, problems with Internet service provider, or other such issues.

3.  Authentication

a.  Confirm the primary means of access control shall be via IP authentication. VIVA maintains an authoritative list of IP addresses in both HTML and Excel, available to the offeror at http://www.vivalib.org/tech/ips.php. The offeror shall detail the handling of access control including any special requirements for access through campus proxy servers. Additional methods of access control may be included. For access control other than IP authentication, the user should not be presented with a login screen.

b.  Specify the standard authentication mechanisms (e.g., Proxy servers such as EZproxy, Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), Kerberos, and Shibboleth) available to VIVA institutions for passing valid users to service.

c.  Describe ability to control access to collections and track database usage by means that supplement IP authentication, such that an institution’s unique subscriptions can be differentiated when both VIVA and non-VIVA resources are being authenticated using the same IP address. An example of this is the inclusion of an institution or campus identifier in the database URL. The intent of this provision is to avoid IP overlap between products for access and use accounting when the same IP address set may have different collections of products.

4.  Search Software Capabilities

Provide detailed information regarding the proposed system's search capabilities by describing the system’s functionality. Details should include, but are not limited to functionality in the following areas:

a.  Author, title and subject searching.

b.  Keyword searching in all conventional database records fields (including but not limited to author, article title, journal title, abstract, descriptor, language, and year of publication) and full text (if available); list any elements not searchable by keyword.

c.  Boolean operators AND, OR, NOT and specify default Boolean operator.

d.  Proximity searching (e.g., within the same field, within “n” words).

e.  Right-hand and internal (wildcard) truncation.

f.  Phrase searching.

g.  Default search fields.

h.  Ability to revise a search without starting over.

i.  Ability to limit searches, before or after the user has submitted the search, including but not limited to date range, full text (if available), document type such as refereed/peer reviewed, source type or materials held by the local library.