MBRS/NRPB Consultant Services

The Library of Congress (LOC) intends to award a contract on a sole source basis to AVPreserve, 350 7th Avenue, Suite 1605, New York, NY 10001. LOC is seeking a contractor to provide consultant services in developing an application to facilitate the efficient creation and use of item level records for audiovidual collections. Audio Visual Collaborative Cataloging (AVCC) is a data collection tool that helps establish intellectual control in support of preservation planning and collection management. As such there are several distinct, yet intertwined levels of expertise underlying this approach. The task involved in this contract is very specific and requires extremely specialized knowledge of audio preservation, as well as, the organizations involved in these activities and their needs. AV Preserve is a leading commercial organization in these activities, having been involved in many similar projects throughout the library and archival communities, concerning recorded sound. We do not know of any other organization possessing the knowledge, experience and demonstrated track record to fulfill successfully the many and varied tasks this contract will involve. More specifically, the concept for AVCC and the resources that have been produced to date have come from AVPreserve with support of the Metropolitan New York Library Council. This experience offers AVPreserve unique and valuable insight and expertise in the continued development of AVCC. Aside from this there are many aspects of their experience and expertise which make them well suited to serve as the sole source vendor for this effort. Based on past and continuing experience in working with legacy audiovisual collections, AVPreserve has an unmatched level of expertise related to the needs for the development of AVCC that would make them the best and sole source provider of services. AVPreserve's regular work in planning and managing digitization projects (both outsourced and in-house) maintains a strong technical expertise in ever-changing field of audiovisual preservation. This expertise has been sought out for consultation support on digitization planning and standards development projects such as the Indiana University Media Preservation Initiative, Northeast Document Conservation Center audio reformatting services planning grant, and multiple efforts with the Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative Audiovisual Working Group. AVPreserve staff have conducted dozens of preservation planning inventories and collection assessments internationally for audio collections at all levels, ranging from small local collections (Border Studies Archive, StoryCorps, The Town Hall) to collections in the hundreds of thousands (New York Public Library Recorded Sound Collection, National Library of Denmark, Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage). These efforts have provided AVPreserve with a rare insight into the range of collections, conditions, and institutional challenges that exist with audiovisual materials. AVPreserve staff have also written widely and presented at professional conferences on minimal processing in audiovisual collections, and have a background in database development and reporting both inside and outside of the archival field. They have also conducted independent user testing of data collection workflows and data needs with the University of Georgia Libraries. AVPreserve has developed a several web-based inventory and metadata management applications, including Catalyst, which has been used to generate an inventory of over 100,000 items with the New Jersey Network, and AMS, which has been used by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting American Archive Project (over 2,000,000 records) and the Flemish Audiovisual Archive (VIAA) to manage the digitization process of collections held by multiple member organizations. Combined, these experiences have provided AVPreserve with the ability to design and implement collection management. Period of Performance is estimated to be from August 15, 2014 through August 14, 2015 (365 days). All work is to be in accordance with Section C of the solicitation. Interested vendors should submit their quotes to the LOC at Library of Congress, Office of Contracts and Grants Management (OGCM), 101 Independence Avenue, SE, Room LA0-325, Washington, DC 20540-9411. Vendors my also email their quotes to Diane Campbell at DCAM@loc.gov. Facsimile quotes are not acceptable. Vendors are responsible for clearly marking their quotes and packages with the solicitation number and closing date. Please provide a point of contact (including name, phone numbers and email address). Submit all quotes by no later than 3:00 pm, on July 30, 2014, Eastern Time. This is not a small business set-aside.