D317--Intent to Sole Source EBSCO Discovery System Subscpription For the Butler VAMC. This is not an RFQ

Page 14 of 16 Send a capability statement, no more than one page in length; to include Company Name, Duns Number, Socioeconomic Category, brief description of your business entities capability to handle this particular project in the Pittsburgh area, website and GSA Contract number & or other VA Medical Center contract information. Email to contact@example.gov, Jeffrey Pruett with 36C24420Q0777 in the email Subject line, no later than 8:00 am Friday July 10th, 2020. STATEMENT OF WORK EBSCO DISCOVERY SYSYTEM SUBSCRIPTION FOR BUTLER VAMC BACKGROUND The Contractor shall be responsible for the management, labor and equipment necessary to provide access to (1) serial publication subscriptions, (2) point of care database subscriptions services, and (3) related subscriptions services to Butler VAMC Department of Veterans Affairs Library located in Butler PA. Related subscriptions services include paying publishers, handling claims for non-receipt, processing changes in subscriptions status (renewals, new and cancelled subscriptions), facilitating the activation of online access, and submission of required reports and other service problems. Title listings provided by VAMC Libraries may vary. Approximately 85% of subscriptions placed by the Customers will be renewal subscriptions. Products and services purchased under this solicitation shall only be for official Government use. PERFORMANCE PERIOD The period of performance shall be for a base year plus 4 one-year option periods PLACE OF PERFORMANCE All work shall be performed at the Contractors facilities. TASKS AND DELIVERABLES Contractors shall provide all Tasks and Deliverables described to the Butler VA Healthcare Center Library. 2.4.1 SCOPE OF WORK The Contractor shall be responsible for the management, labor and equipment necessary to provide access to (1) serial publication subscriptions, (2) point of care database subscriptions services, and (3) related subscriptions services to Butler VAMC Department of Veterans Affairs Library located in Butler PA. Related subscriptions services include paying publishers, handling claims for non-receipt, processing changes in subscriptions status (renewals, new and cancelled subscriptions), facilitating the activation of online access, and submission of required reports and other service problems. Title listings provided by VAMC Libraries may vary. Approximately 85% of subscriptions placed by the Customers will be renewal subscriptions. Products and services purchased under this solicitation shall only be for official Government use. Approximately 85% of subscriptions placed by the Customers will be renewal subscriptions. Products and services purchased under this solicitation shall only be for official Government use. 2.4.2. GENERAL REQUIREMENTS The VA anticipates issuing multiple awards. 2.4.2.1 Subscription Services. The solicitation is divided into three parts. Contractor(s) must qualify under Part 1 in order to provide services under Part 2 and/or Part 3. The three Parts are: Part 1 - Basic Subscription Service. Part 2 - Required Support Services. Part 3 - Optional Specialized Electronic Access Service. 2.4.2.1.1 Part 1 - Basic Subscription Service. Contractor shall provide basic subscription services that would include all the tasks necessary to execute and manage orders for new and renewal subscriptions to serial publication subscriptions and point of care database subscriptions. These tasks fall into the following four critical areas, described in detail elsewhere in the solicitation: (a) Ordering subscriptions; (b) Serving as the fiscal agent with publishers, including making timely prepayments, processing refunds, claims, supplemental and bill-later charges; (c) Ensuring timely and complete delivery of ordered subscriptions; and, (d) Providing reports and other administrative support for subscriptions management. 2.4.2.1.2 Part 2 - Required Support Services. Contractor shall provide support to cover a range of subscription-related products and services to the libraries, in addition to basic subscription order and renewal services described under Part 1. 2.4.2.1.3 Part 3 - Optional Specialized Electronic Access Service. Contractors who offer access to e-journal subscriptions may offer related systems? for managing access to electronic subscriptions and articles via the Web. (For subscriptions to journals in electronic and all other formats are a basic subscription service required by Part 1). 2.4.3 SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS 2.4.3.1 Part One - Basic Subscription Order and Renewal Services. Contractor shall provide subscription services for all subscriptions in all media generally available via agents from foreign and domestic publishers, if the ordering customer can supply enough publication information. 2.4.3.1.1 The Contractor shall supply materials from a wide range of publishers, to include: (a) Medical publishers. (b) General circulation periodical publishers. (c) Trade publishers. (d) University presses. (e) Societies and Associations, Scientific. (f) Societies and Associations, Non-Scientific. (g) Small Presses. (h) Non-paper format publishers. (i) Government agencies. (j) Quasi-governmental organizations (e.g., United Nations, World Health Organization, etc.). 2.4.3.1.2 Subscription subjects shall include materials in the following listing of subject categories: (Not intended to be all inclusive) (a) Health Sciences. (b) Allied Health Sciences. (c) Social and Behavioral Sciences. (d) Science and Technology. (e) Management. (f) Business and Administration. (g) Marketing. (h) General Interest. 2.4.3.1.3 Definitions (a) Annual. A serial issued once a year. Back Orders. Orders that could that could not be filled by the Contractor when originally placed are kept on file pending availability of the material. (c) "Bill Liters" are a type of continuation in which a Contractor does not bill a library customer until the publisher has confirmed the price and/or availability of the item(s). (d) Consignee is the location to which items are shipped. (e) CO. Contracting Officer. (f) Contractor. The organization providing serial subscription services to the Department of Veterans Affairs, for purposes of this solicitation, used interchangeably with Vendor or Offeror. (g) COTR. Contracting Officer's Technical Representative. (h) "Licensing" refers to terms and conditions required by the owners of proprietary systems, software or intellectual property regarding the terms of its use. (i) Life of Subscription. The period beginning with the subscription order placement and ending with the last issue covered by the subscription period. (j) Online Claiming. Online Claiming is defined as computer-to-computer interactive communication to determine the current status of individual subscriptions, to register service complaints, and/or to facilitate communication between the Library staff and the Contractor. (k) Periodical. A serial appearing or intended to appear indefinitely at regular or stated intervals, generally more frequently than annually, each issue of which is numbered or dated consecutively and normally contains separate articles, stories or other writings. (l) Point of Care Database. Point of Care databases are online clinical reference tools used by healthcare professionals in treating and diagnosing patients healthcare issues. These databases may contain e-journals, e-books, or be made up of proprietary information resources. These resources are accessible via the Internet. (m) Publisher Price. The term publisher price, as used in this agreement, means the established publisher's list price for the given subscription period at the time of order acceptance; the price at which a publication is made available to the public. It is established by the publisher and is exclusive of any discount. Loosely, the price quoted by the publisher s catalog. (n) Serial. A publication in any medium issued in successive parts bearing numerical or chronological designations and intended to be continued indefinitely. Serials include periodicals, newspapers, magazines, annuals, yearbooks, journals, memoirs, proceedings, transactions, and numbered monographic series and other serially published works. Serials may be published in any medium or format (including electronic, print, microform, or other non-print media), and may be available through purchase (as with traditional print magazines) or license (as with online journals). (o) Station. A Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Also included under this term are all other VA units which may choose to access the contract, e.g., VA Central Office Library, Independent Outpatient Clinics, etc. (p) Subscription. The term subscription, as used in this agreement, means (1) a serial or periodical publication (2) point of care database and (3) related services. The Department of Veterans Affairs determines the subscription period, publisher permitting, and the Contractor shall place and service it for the life of the subscription plus three months. (q) Supplemental Invoicing. Billing submitted, on a quarterly basis to cover bill later titles, unscheduled issues for which publishers charge, etc. (r) Transfer Renewal. Transferal of serial subscription renewal to a different serial subscription agent. (s) VA. Department of Veterans Affairs. (t) Vendor. The organization providing subscription services to the Department of Veterans Affairs. 2.4.3.1.4 Subscription Periods. (a) Publisher permitting, the Contractor shall be required to place subscriptions at any time during the year, to provide common expiration dates for initial subscription and renewals whenever possible, and to assist in prorating for common expiration dates, as required by individual stations. (b) The Contractor shall provide administrative and other services for each subscription placed until three months after its expiration or for the life of the subscription. 2.4.3.1.5 Order placement. Orders under multiple award contracts, each contractor shall be provided Fair Opportunity to be considered for each order exceeding $2500 issued as required by FAR 16.505 (b). In support of basic order and renewal services, the Contractor shall perform the following services and provide products as described below. (a) Initial Year of Subscription Services Only. [Refer to Section (b) below for order placement instructions for option years] (i) Each Station will forward to each Contractor, within ten calendar (10) days of the VA contract award, a complete listing of subscriptions to be ordered or renewed. (ii) Contractor shall organize these lists in the format of an annual renewal listing. Contractor shall maintain the general arrangement of subscriptions as requested by the Station(s), either as one list alphabetical by title or as two or three lists alphabetical by title arranged under the headings Administrative, Medical, and/or General. Contractor(s) shall forward two copies of the quote and response to the technical criteria to the Station(s) within fourteen (14) calendar days. (iii) Station(s) shall review the quote and response to the technical criteria, select a Contractor, make necessary changes in the renewal list and return to the selected Contractor within five (5) working days of receipt. (iv) The Contractor shall reformat the renewal list, incorporating all changes, additions or deletions into a final confirmation list and submit the list to the Station within seven (7) calendar days of receipt. (v) The Station shall review the confirmation list for accuracy, make any editing or other changes, and forward the confirmation list to the Contractor in five (5) working days. (vi) Contractor shall place renewals with the publishers within five (5) working days of receiving the confirmation list or authorization to order from a contracting officer, whichever is later. In those cases where follow up is required by the Contractor before an order can be placed, the Contractor shall notify the station Contracting Officer within five (5) working days of the problem and resolve in an expeditious manner. (vii) Station(s) have the option to waive the confirmation list review during the initial or any option years. Option Years of Subscription Services. In option years, the Contractor of the initial subscription year shall forward two copies of the renewal list to the Station by July 15. The Station shall review the renewal list, make necessary changes and return it to the Contractor by August 15. The contractor shall then reformat the renewal list, incorporating all changes, additions, and deletions, into a final confirmation list, and submit the confirmation list to the Station for its final approval by September 1. The Station shall review the confirmation list for accuracy make any editing or other changes and forward the confirmation list to the Vendor by September 15. (v) The Contractor shall place the renewals with the publishers within ten (10) working days of receiving the confirmation list or authorization to order, whichever is later. In those cases where follow up is required by the Contractor before an order can be placed, the Contractor shall notify the Station Contracting Officer within five (5) working days of the problem and resolve in an expeditious manner. (vi) If the Station is dissatisfied with the performance of the Contractor selected for the initial subscription year, they may re-compete for the subsequent four (4) years remaining on the contract. See instructions for Initial Year of Subscription Service (2.2.3.1.5.a) Subscription renewal lists. At a minimum, the Contractor shall be able to provide a renewal list as described below. The Contractor may propose other formats which the Station may, at its discretion, choose instead. The lists shall be provided in MS Excel format with optional print delivery. The Station provides the Contractor listings by multiple ship-to addresses by category, e.g., medical, general, administrative; the Contractor shall respond to the lists in the same manner. The listings shall be on separate pages for each "ship to" address, shall alphabetically list all subscription subscriptions ordered or on record for that consignee, and shall contain the following information: (i) Complete "Bill to" and "Ship to" address (ii) Contract and Delivery order number (iii) Title (iv) Quantity (v) Subscription Period based on VA Data (vi) New, Renewal, Subscription added or Transfer Renewal (vii) Price: To contain latest known publishers' rates currently available, and the date for which that price was obtained. Indicate if publications are free to the government or other institutions and how to obtain them, include titles which are part of memberships and/or combination subscriptions, titles available direct from publisher only, etc. (viii) Service fee (ix) Frequency Bibliographic status of those titles currently under review for renewal All additional titles which may not be due for renewal, but which are on record for a specific consignee Renewal documents; to contain an 80 character capacity local information field or fields for the storing of unique data for each title (e.g. internal fund accounting, subject identification, VA assigned numbers, etc.) (xiii) Listing of any "direct only" subscriptions, meaning subscriptions which the Contractor cannot supply due to publishers licensing requirements, where privity of contract is required by the Publisher to be directly between the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Publisher. The doctrine of privity in the common law of contracts provides that a contract cannot confer rights or impose obligations arising under it on any person or agent except the parties to it. The Contractors to this contract may be third party agents to the goods and services described in this SOW. (xiv) Listing of "standing order" or "billed as published" titles (xv) Documented constraints, e.g., irregular publication, discontinued, volume year or calendar year basis only, publisher will not pro-rate, no refund available, etc., will be noted on subscription listing (xvi) ISSN or ISBN (xvii) Publisher 2.4.3.1.6 Additional materials (a) Not included in the basic subscription price. As the Contractor is responsible for providing all material published within a given subscription year, within one month of their identification the Contractor shall notify each subscriber of special issues, indexes, and unnumbered supplements not included in the basic subscription price. These items shall be made available to the subscribers by special order under this contract at the publisher's price, with no additional charges, other than any handling and transportation costs charged to the Contractor by the publisher. (b) No charge. Title pages, tables of contents, annual or other indexes, and other materials normally supplied by the publisher at no added charge to a requesting subscriber, are to be supplied automatically by the Contractor at no additional charge. 2.4.3.1.7 Continuations. Initial pre-order price quotes will contain estimates of costs for "bill later" items. In subsequent years, estimates of such continuations will be included on renewal lists to ensure funding availability is maintained. After "bill later" subscriptions have been invoiced, the Contractor shall supply, at no charge, a listing by title showing subscriptions billed versus those not yet billed. 2.4.3.1. 8 Rush Orders. Upon receipt of a rush order request from an authorized agent from the Station, the Contractor shall communicate that order to the publisher with 24-hours. If the publisher will not accept the order without prior payment, the Contractor shall send out such payment within that same 24-hour period. Contractor shall accept orders of any size, at any time, without adding a small order penalty fee. 2.4.3.1.9 Catalog. The Contractor shall provide an annual catalog of subscriptions available. The catalog shall be available to the customer electronically and in print format, e.g. via Internet, at no additional charge to the agency. The Station retains the right to request print copies of catalog information for cataloged subscriptions of interest. The catalogs shall have as a minimum the following information: (a) Titles (b) ISSN or ISBN (c) Cost (d) Frequency (e) Enumeration (f) Descriptive information, e.g., title changes, with cross references, memberships (if available), publisher (if available) (g) Documented constraints (h) Instructions for electronic access to the publications 2.4.3.1.10 Publishers' Prices. The Contractor shall supply, on demand, copies of publishers' invoices or other documentation acceptable to the VA to verify subscription costs charged the government. All prices of individual subscriptions which show an increase of 25%, or more, over the publisher's list price at the time the order is placed shall include a copy of the publisher's invoice demonstrating that fact included with the invoice submitted by the Contractor to the VA Station for payment. 2.4.3.1.11 Cancellations. Upon cancellation of an order between the Contractor and VA Station, the Contractor shall notify the Station concerning any cancellations of individual subscriptions, e.g., standing orders. The Station shall direct the Contractor to continue or cancel the individual subscriptions. The Contractor shall not cancel subscriptions for which a Station has already paid without direction from that VA Station. 2.4.3.1.12 Payment. (a) The Contractor shall pay all regular subscription orders in advance, prior to submission of first invoice. (b) The Contractor shall make additional payments as necessary and be required to adjust for unforeseen contingencies, such as currency fluctuations, additional volumes. (c) The Contractor shall maintain complete records of all bibliographic and financial transactions of each Station for up to three years. The Contractor shall provide to the VA immediate access to these records on demand. If required by the VA, the Contractor shall provide copies of these documents at no cost. The Contractor shall retain the original records on-site. The Station shall pay the Contractor through the Chief, Fiscal Service. Initial invoicing from the Contractor shall reach the Station no later than October 15 of each year. The Contractor shall provide prompt cancellation and return of all recovered funds to the Chief, Fiscal Service of each Station without any additional administrative charges. (e) In the event that supplemental invoicing is necessary the Contractor shall send supplemental invoices only in January, April, and July of the contract year, to arrive at the bill-to location no later than the 15th of the month. 2.4.3.13 Administrative Services the Contractor shall provide the following administrative services to support subscription ordering services: (a) Claims for missing, defective or mutilated issues. The Contractor shall be the contract liaison for all VA Stations in obtaining from the publisher replacement copies of periodicals found to be defective, mutilated, lost in transit, or otherwise missing, provided the loss is reported within sixty calendar days. Contractor shall provide back issue ordering if requested. Contractor shall respond to Stations' claims within ten (10) calendar days of the claim. The Contractor shall offer electronic claims services at no additional charge. The Contractor shall, upon request of the government, demonstrate or make available for review its electronic claims system prior to contract award. (i) The Contractor shall provide each Station with the necessary training and written documentation to enable each Station to effectively use the electronic claiming system. (ii) The Contractor shall supply the VA and all "ship-to" addressees with full-service assistance in claiming missing issues. The claim notice sent from the Contractor to the publisher shall include the following information: (a) Title being claimed (b) Specific issues (c) Date of Contractor s order to publishers (d) Order period (e) Amount paid (f) Proof of payment (g) Change of address, if any (iii) The Contractor shall handle claims for any subscription for up to three months after the life of the subscription. (b) Refunds for Lost Periodicals, Replacements, and Discontinuance of Publication. In the case where replacement is unavailable and refunds are offered instead, the Contractor shall make a refund in full of all amounts paid by the VA Station. The Contractor shall provide refunds or substitute materials from publishers for unexpired portions of subscriptions which discontinue publication during life of the subscription. (c) Refunds for Cancellations. When a refund has been requested due to timely cancellation (within 60 days of initial order) of a subscription, the Contractor shall provide refunds to the VA Station. The Contractor shall provide the Station with the option of receiving a refund or accepting a credit when refunds are due. (d) Duplicate Issues. The Contractor shall deal directly with the publisher to correct duplicate issue errors. (e) Bill to and Ship to Addresses. The Contractor shall support multiple shipping addresses, domestic and foreign, under one billing address. VA Station addresses shall have the capacity for up to five (5) lines, with each line up to 30 characters. (f) Change of Address. The Contractor shall notify the publisher of changes of address within 5 workdays of notification by the consignee. (g) Membership Entitlements. The Contractor shall provide a written summary of all publications and/or material received through memberships, i.e., title, frequency, quantity of each publication, and special membership benefits. (h) Sample Copies. The Contractor shall request sample copies of a serial when requested to do so by the VA. The Contractor shall also provide pertinent information on new subscriptions. (i) Back Issues. Upon request from a VA Station, the Contractor shall acquire back issues of a title for up to one year prior to the date of the current volume. (j) Personal Representative. The Contractor shall assign a representative by name to provide personalized in-house assistance for each VA Station account. The personal representative shall provide assistance between 8:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. in each of the time zones (Eastern, Central, Mountain, Pacific). (k) Toll-Free Telephone Number. The Contractor shall provide a toll- free telephone line for Stations to utilize in contacting their personal representative between 8:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. in each of the time zones (Eastern, Central, Mountain, Pacific.) The Contractor, shall respond to the CO, COTR or VA Station messages within 24 hours, or the next working day. (l) Information Bulletins. The Contractor shall provide monthly email information bulletins updating the latest known information on various serial titles, to minimally include: (i) Ceased publications (ii) Suspended publications (iii) Publication delays (iv) Publishing frequency changes (v) Title changes (vi) Title mergers or absorptions (vii) Title splits (viii) Price changes (m) Other Communication with VA Stations. The Contractor shall email all administrative information not covered in information bulletins (excluding claims) to the library staff and Contracting Officer responsible for each VA Station. All communication to groups of more than 5 consignee locations must be approved by the COTR prior to its distribution. (n) Library Management Reports (i) Specifications. At no additional charge and on demand, the Contractor shall provide listings containing all or part of the following information as specified by the VA and shall describe capability to provide listings and reports in desired MS Office format. (a) Title (b) Ship-to-address (c) Invoice-item number (d) Purchase order number (e) Subscription period (f) Quantity (g) Frequency (h) Price with adjustments and estimates (i) Volume (j) ISSN or ISBN (k) Station number (l) Publisher (ii) Sorting. In addition, the Contractor shall have the capability of sorting, subtotaling, and re-totaling the reports by any of the above included fields of information. Medium. The Contractor shall provide reports in the desired MS Office format, with optional print delivery of reports. The Customer retains the right to choose which format to receive. Minimum Required Reports. At a minimum, the Contractor shall provide the following reports at no charge: (a) Financial Summary Report. The contractor shall provide a listing at the Station s request, by Government fiscal year, of all Contractor instigated adjustments, e.g., credit or debit invoices to the stations for services provided. This report shall include invoice number, dollar amount, and service charge amount. (b) Claims Lists. The Contractor shall provide to the station a monthly listing of all outstanding claims and any responses received from the publishers. The report shall be cumulative, by title, for all unresolved claims. (c) Subscription Status Information. The Contractor shall notify the station in writing of any irregularity or change in subscription status, such as: bill later, non-cancelable, slow, irregular, discontinued, order direct, standing order, split title, not due for renewal at this time, period restricted, establishing contact with publisher, suspended publication, foreign title, estimated price, and price increases since last billing published price, etc., on a monthly basis. (d) Consolidated Reports. Individual station(s) shall monitor local deliverables; however, a degree of centralized monitoring will be performed by the COTR. The following cumulative (for all contract users) reports are required: (i) Consolidated monthly claims listing by ship-to address, by title to include cumulative claims histories (ii) Copies of letters, directions, other than routine responses to claims and ordering requests, prior to mailing to contract users (iii) Annual renewal materials, e.g., Contractor's catalog, forms, report formats, ordering and renewal instructions, etc. (iv) Semi-annual report (February, August) of all contract user's addresses, telephone numbers, number of titles ordered, and dollar value of orders (v) Information on economic factors affecting coming year prices, such as forested publisher price increases, exchange rates, and other information for both domestic and foreign medical publishers. (e) Quality Assurance Reports shall be prepared and submitted to the COTR during April and September of each year. These reports will include descriptions of problems or problem areas identified, how they were addressed, and an explanation of how the results were "globalized" to all VA locations; actions the Contractor has taken to improve publisher response to claims; programs developed to reduce costs to VA, etc. (f) Customer Satisfaction Survey. In April of each year, the Contractor shall distribute a Customer Satisfaction Survey to all VA consignees. By June 1st, the Contractor shall receipt, compile and analyze Survey results, submit a report to the VACO COTR explaining the results of the survey, and delineate what actions, if any, are recommended to resolve problems and improve customer satisfaction. 2.4.3.14 Licenses Contractor and publishers frequently have license agreements for their electronic publications, systems and software products. Licenses may be for the subscription agent s proprietary products, or publisher s proprietary products. All license agreements will be between the VA libraries and the Contractor/Publishers. Such individual licenses shall only pertain to the VA library for whom they were negotiated. License agreements will be reviewed, approved, signed and enforced by according to local procedures. Contractor s proposals must contain copies of all Contractor proprietary licenses for all items offered. 2.4.3.2 PART 2 - REQUIRED SUPPORT SERVICES Contractor shall offer, and customers may require, the following at an additional charge: Solicitation 776-06-553 Page 15 of 16 2.4.3.2.1 Journal Check-In. An electronic check-in system will be made available. The following functions shall be provided: (a) Complete bibliographic information (b) Check-in (new issue receipt) (c) Routing (journal issue and table of contents) (d) Claiming (e) Binding (f) Fund control (purchase/budget information) (g) Holdings records (h) MARC records, Z39.50 compliant (i) Reports: (i) Alphabetical journal list (ii) Journal list by vendor (iii) Journal holdings (iv) Serials receipt for specified date range (j) Prediction pattern 2.4.3.2.2 MARC Record Data. The Contractor shall provide electronic files of catalog data in MARC format, local or consortia holdings data, for loading into customer s local system. The Contractor shall have the ability to provide stable and accurate URLs either in title list format or included in the 856 field of the MARC record. 2.4.3.2.3 Additional Reports. The Contractor shall describe additional available reports, if any, that have not already been included in Part 1. Include data available in electronic format, in addition to MARC records, and the formats in which the data is available. 2.4.3.3 PART 3 OPTIONAL SPECIALIZED ELECTRONIC ACCESS SERVICE. Contractor who offer subscription services under Part 1 may offer management of electronic publication subscriptions, licenses, links, user authorizations and usage data, customized access or file groupings for individual or consortium, customers, collection assessment and collection development reports. Pricing formulas shall be predefined where possible. Fair and reasonable customer specific offerings may be negotiated on an individual basis by VA either for individual customer or for consortia. Solicitation 776-06-553 Page 19 of 16 Solicitation 776-06-553 Page 16 of 16 CONTRACT DOCUMENTS, EXHIBITS, OR ATTACHMENTS PACKAGING AND MARKING Packaging, marking and delivery of periodicals, magazines and books shall conform with industry standards. APP...