Interlibrary Loan Service

This Sources Sought Notice is for information and planning purposes only and shall not be construed as a solicitation or as an obligation on the part of the National Library of Medicine (NLM). The purpose of this Sources Sought Notice is to identify qualified business concerns who are interested in and capable of performing the work described herein. The NLM does not intend to award a contract on the basis of responses received nor otherwise pay for the preparation of any information submitted. Your responses to the information requested will assist the Government in determining the appropriate acquisition method. This requirement is assigned North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code 519210, Libraries and Archives with a size standard in dollars is $21,000,000. As a result of this Sources Sought Notice, the NLM may issue a Request for Quotation (RFQ). THERE IS NO SOLICITATION AVAILABLE AT THIS TIME. However, should such a requirement materialize, no basis for claims against NLM shall arise as a result of a response to this Sources Sought Notice or the NLM's use of such information as either part of our evaluation process or in developing specifications for any subsequent requirement. BACKGROUND 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, or requests for articles appearing in electronic journal subscriptions. NLM also lends physical 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, and a back-end program that allows staff and contractors to fulfill ILL requests from both DOCLINE and non-DOCLINE users. OBJECTIVE The objective of this notice is to obtain information to identify firms capable of performing the tasks as outlined in the Statement of Work. The support provided will include 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. Firms submitting a response to this Notice should include a capabilities statement covering experience, staffing and technical capabilities for performance of the following questions. Responses for each question should include information to demonstrate how the firm's recent past performance (last 3 years) is relevant to the technical areas listed including the dollar value, period of performance, size and scope of the firm's prior contracts. SCOPE The contractor shall provide interlibrary loan services by performing, at minimum, the following tasks: monitoring requests queues; understanding and working with bibliographical information pertinent to requests; retrieving and scanning materials that are not available electronically; providing support to federal staff in filling requests from electronic materials; and responding to requests from customer service staff for the update or correction of requests on an as-needed basis. QUESTIONS Question 1: Describe your firm's recent experience with hiring employees with library work experience and assigning them to staff contracts in libraries. Question 2: Describe your firm's recent experience with staffing that supports work in library stacks with books, journals, audiovisual materials, or archival materials. Question 3: Describe your firm's recent experience in staffing projects that require detail-oriented employees that can understand and use bibliographic citations to locate or cite library materials. Question 4: Describe your firm's recent experience with interlibrary loan or other closely related resource and information sharing projects involving libraries, archives, or museums. CONTRACT REQUIREMENTS The services to be provided under this contract include retrieval of NLM's print, microform, electronic, and audiovisual collection items that are requested through interlibrary loan; identifying and 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 (ILS); packing, preparing, and shipping items requested by other institutions using a courier service; and unpacking and processing items returned to NLM by said borrowing institutions. See attached Statement of Work (SOW) for full details. TYPE OF ORDER This will be issued as a severable firm fixed price purchase order. PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE The period of performance is as follows: Base Year: 12/04/2024-12/03/2025 Option Year 1: 12/04/2025-12/03/2026 Option Year 2: 12/04/2026-12/03/2027 Option Year 3: 12/04/2027-12/03/2028 Option Year 4: 12/04/2028-12/03/2029 PLACE OF PERFORMANCE Onsite services shall be performed at the following location: NIH, NLM 8600 Rockville Pike Bethesda, MD 20894 How to Submit a Response: Interested firms responding to this Notice must provide a capability statement that includes the following: -Vendor name, address, e-mail address, website address, and telephone number. -Capability statement addressing the particulars of this effort, with appropriate documentation supporting claims of corporate experience, organizational and staff capability, and expertise. -If subcontracting or teaming is anticipated to deliver technical capability, organizations should address the administrative and management structure of such arrangements; and -Past Performance for a Federal agency of a similar requirement in terms of complexity and size. Page Limitations: Interested qualified small business organizations should submit a tailored capability statement for this requirement not to exceed 10 single sided pages including all attachments, resumes, charts, etc. (single spaced, 12-point font minimum) that clearly details the ability to perform the requirements of the notice described above. All proprietary information should be marked as such. Responses should include a minimum of a one page resume of the individuals meeting the requirements, and up to two pages demonstrating experience over the past two years meeting the requirements of this notice. Statements should also include an indication of current small business status; this indication should be clearly marked on the first page of your capability statement (preferable placed under the eligible small business concern's name and address). It should also include if the requested service is available via Federal Supply Schedule, Governmentwide acquisitions contracts, or BPA's. Responses will be reviewed only by NIH personnel and will be held in a confidential manner. Organizations shall demonstrate 1.) Technical Approach 2.) Personnel Requirements and Organizational Experience. Due Date: Capability statements are due no later than October 15,2024 by 1:00PM EST Delivery Point: All information furnished must be in writing and must contain sufficient detail to allow the NLM to determine if it can meet the unique specifications described herein. All questions must be in writing and emailed to janna.weber@nih.gov. A determination by the Government not to compete this requirement based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. In order to receive an award, contractors must have valid registration and certification at www.sam.gov. No collect calls will be accepted. Please reference number 75N97025Q00002 on all correspondence. 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 RFQ may be published in SAM.gov. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation(s). Point of Contact: Inquiries concerning this Notice may be direct to: Janna Weber at janna.weber@nih.gov. 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.