NAL Digital Preservation Services

Sources Sought Notice for Digital Preservation This is a Sources Sought Notice issued by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for informational and planning purposes only. This is NOT a solicitation, nor is it an announcement for a forthcoming solicitation. Submission of any information in response to this notification is purely voluntary. The Government assumes no financial responsibility for any costs incurred in providing a response. This notice does not constitute a Request for Bid, Request for Quote or Request for Proposal, nor does it restrict the Government as to the ultimate acquisition approach. Responses to this notification will help to determine the acquisition strategy for any future solicitation. The information from this notice will help the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA), National Agricultural Library (NAL) plan their acquisition strategy. NAL is seeking a contractor to perform the following: Background The National Agricultural Library's (NAL) current technological infrastructure struggles to provide long-term preservation to match the rapid uptick in digital content creation, increased digitization efforts, and curation of complex research datasets. In addition to regular data back-ups, NAL should develop a long-term preservation strategy that addresses file and media formats, redundancy, software and hardware obsolescence, accessibility, migration, standards, security, authenticity, and integrity. Software and storage options suitable for the scale and nature of this activity should be deployed and the overall framework should be carefully planned, documented, and managed. Purpose and Scope NAL requires a digital preservation system that will ensure that the library's digital collections and assets remain accessible in the long-term, supporting digital ways of working with staff and users, reducing, or eliminating potential risk of catastrophic data loss, and support key strategic priorities. NAL requires a long-term active digital preservation and secure access (backup, archiving, storage and content management) in a single, intuitive and fully supported application aligned to the OAIS ISO 14721 standard. The system will safely store content, ensuring that it can be found and trusted, provides secure immediate access, and automatically updates files to future-friendly formats. The system will ensure the accessibility and authenticity of digital information over successive technology cycles and custodians for the following content areas: NAL collections Publications Special collections Retired NAL non-record materials that have enduring value National Arboretum Herbarium digitization output USDA Datasets curated by AgDataCommons Technical and Specific Requirements See Attachment 1 - Statement of Need SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS: Interested vendors are invited to submit a response to this Sources Sought Notification no later than the notice submission date, to the attention of Sarah E. Zhang, Contract Specialist, at sarah.zhang@usda.gov. The email subject line must specify - Sources Sought for Digital Preservation Services. Responses should be no more than 10 pages and include the following information: Organization Name; Contact Name, e-mail address and phone number; Organizations UEI number; Any related GWAC, BPA, or GSA Schedule you participate in; Business size status for the applicable NAICS code of 513210 Software Publishers. Size Standard $47 million; A statement of capability with appropriate detail how the vendor intends to fulfill the requirements listed within the statement of work; Any industry questions and comments. Interested vendors are instructed to provide only the data requested. No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response. The Government reserves the right to use any nonproprietary technical information in any resultant solicitation(s). Any additional information will not be reviewed by the USDA. NO TELEPHONE REQUESTS WILL BE ACCEPTED. DISCLAIMER: This Sources Sought Notice is not a RFQ and is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government to issue a solicitation or ultimately award a contract. Responses will not be considered as quotes, nor will any award be made as a result of this notice. All information contained in the Sources Sought Notice is preliminary as well as subject to modification and is in no way binding on the Government. The Government does not intend to pay for information received in response to this Sources Sought Notice. Responders to this invitation are solely responsible for all expenses associated with responding to this Sources Sought Notice. This Sources Sought Notice will be the basis for collecting information on capabilities available. This Sources Sought Notice is issued solely for information and planning purposes. Proprietary information and trade secrets, if any, must be clearly marked on all materials. All information received in this Sources Sought Notice that is marked "Proprietary" will be handled accordingly. Please be advised that all submissions become Government property and will not be returned nor will receipt be confirmed.