RFP # 16-1276-10EF

October 31, 2016

REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL

DIGITAL MATERIALS – eBOOK and eAUDIO Annual Contract

FOR HENRICO COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARIES

COUNTY OF HENRICO, VIRGINIA

Your firm is invited to submit a proposal for and annual contract(s)to provideDigital Materials for the Libraries in accordance with the enclosed specifications. The submittal, consisting of the original proposal,six (6) additional copies, and one (1) electronic versionmarked,“Digital Materials - eBook and eAudio for Henrico County Public Libraries”, will be received no later than2:00 p.m., December 2, 2016 by:

IN PERSON OR SPECIAL COURIERU.S. POSTAL SERVICE

County of HenricoCounty of Henrico

Department of FinanceDepartment of Finance

Purchasing Division ORPurchasing Division

8600 Staples Mill Road - NEW LOCATIONP O Box 90775

Henrico, Virginia 23228Henrico, Virginia 23273-0775

This RFP and any addenda are available on the County of Henrico Purchasing website at

To receive an email copy of this document, please send a request to:

Time is of the essence and any proposal received after 2:00 p.m., December 2, 2016, whether by mail or otherwise, will be returned unopened. The time of receipt shall be determined by the time clock stamp in the Purchasing Division, Department of Finance. Proposals shall be placed in a sealed, opaque envelope, marked in the lower left-hand corner with the RFP number, title, and date and hour proposals are scheduled to be received. Offerors are responsible for insuring that their proposal is stamped by Purchasing Division personnel by the deadline indicated.

Nothing herein is intended to exclude any responsible firm or in any way restrain or restrict competition. On the contrary, all responsible firms are encouraged to submit proposals. The County of Henrico reserves the right to accept or reject any or all proposals submitted.

The awarding authority for this contract is Purchasing Director.

Technical questions concerning this Request for Proposal should be submitted to Janice Bartlett at no later than November 10, 2016.

Very truly yours,

Cecelia H. Stowe, CPPO, C.P.M.

Purchasing Director

Eileen Falcone

Procurement Analyst III

804-501-5637

8600 STAPLES MILL ROAD/P O BOX 90775/HENRICO VA 23273-0775

(804) 501-5660 FAX (804) 501-5693

NON PROFESSIONAL

REVISED AUG 2015

REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL

DIGITAL MATERIALS – eBOOK and eAUDIO ANNUAL CONTRACT

FOR HENRICO COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARIES

COUNTY OF HENRICO

I.INTRODUCTION:

The intent of this Request for Proposal (RFP), and the resulting contract(s), is to obtain the services of a qualified firm(s) to provide the Henrico County Public Library (HCPL) with an annual contract(s) for digital materials, both streaming and downloadable, to provide patrons with eBook and eAudio in accordance with the Scope of Services.

In order to obtain the best possible range of materials and services, the County reserves the right to make multiple awards based on this RFP. The number of contracts awarded will depend on the quality of the proposals received and the unique specialization Offerors provide. Offerors shall be adigital materials distributor capable of delivering comprehensive servicesand be able to provide access to these materials through a product that fully integrates with our existing integrated library system (ILS), currently Sirsi Dynix Symphony Workflows.

II.BACKGROUND:

Henrico County has a population of some 325,283 and a land area of 245 square miles. It is a high growth area adjacent to Richmond, Virginia that is becoming increasingly urban in certain areas. The Library System presently has 11 service outlets located throughout the County which includes Mobile Library Services and a Municipal Law Library. These facilities house a collection of over 839,000 cataloged items. There are approximately 275,000 library card holders in the HCPL system.

As the Library has evolved to meet user demand, the focus of our collection has grown to incorporate digital materials into our preexisting collection of print and physical materials. As the public has become more comfortable with technology, and as it has become more integrated into daily life, we have found that there is continued demand for digital materials.eBooks and eAudiobooks, first introduced by HCPL in 2011, continue to be collections that are highly valued by our patrons.

III.SCOPE OF SERVICES:

The Successful Offeror(s) shall provide all labor materials and supervision necessary to provide the following services as outlined in the Scope of Work.

A. General Requirements:

  1. Offerors must demonstrate a successful history and experience of at least three (3) years providing the desired services to public libraries that are similar in size to Henrico County Public Libraries.
  2. The Successful Offeror(s) shall provide professional and experienced customer service representatives who communicate effectively with Library personnel.
  1. The Successful Offeror(s) shall provide a designated Account Manager to work with HCPL staff during implementation and throughout the term of the contract to resolve any issues concerning their product.
  1. The Successful Offeror(s) shall provide a means that enables library staff to add/edit content, create banners, personalize the site experience, generate reports and complete other tasks necessary to run the day-to-day operations as part of normal services with additional or customized reports upon Library's request at no additionalcost.
  1. The Successful Offeror(s) shall provide unlimited staff access i.e. passwords, logins etc. for administrative purposes at no additional cost to HCPL.
  2. The Successful Offeror’s product shall provide HCPL full access to account information via user-friendly website/interface which will be available 24x7 365 days.

a)The historical detail of such data will be available to HCPL staff during the entire term of the contract. This data shall include, but not be limited to: collection use based on format, age, genre, and/or company; cost per use and turnover rate, by age, genre, and company; new user registrations by day month and/or branch; and user traffic statistics, including active visits and page views.

b) Offerors shall describe how and if the historical data is still available to HCPL at the end of the contract. If we do not continue the service after the contract term is met, offeror shall provide a full export of all data compiled during contract term to HCPL at no fee.

  1. The Successful Offeror(s) shall provide access to a dedicated account specialist to HCPL, responsible for the handling of escalated patron/staff issues, at no charge.
  2. The Successful Offeror(s) shall allow for monthly invoicing, with invoice date to be the 20th of the month.
  3. The Successful Offeror(s)’s product shall allow filtering levels, including, but not limited to age and item type, to be engaged for user access for ease in searching for content.
  4. The Successful Offeror(s)’s product shall allow certain titles/items/formats to be shadowed from public view as determined by HCPL staff. Offerors shall describe in their proposal the process for this functionality for HCPL staff.
  5. The Successful Offeror(s) shall provide PR marketing materials such as posters, flyers etc. at no additional cost to HCPL. Offers shall provide samples and amount of materials provided for this contract.
  6. The Successful Offeror(s) shall provide an implementation plan showing a preferred launch date of March 2017.
  1. The product shall allow for HCPL to set the limit of materials available for checkout per patron per month. HCPL reserves the right to be able to change the limit from the initial amount set during the contract term.
  1. Content shall be available to patrons by downloading, streaming, or established checkout period only. Patrons shall not have ownership of content.
  1. Offerors must provide the ability to host the content currently available by HCPL, ensuring no impact and loss of options to our patrons.

B.Functional Requirements:

The Successful Offeror(s) product shall be able to provide at a minimum the following:

1.Product information available via an online catalog to HCPL staff and patrons.

2.Online, real time order inventory available online to HCPL staff and patrons.

3.All product selection and delivery must be done through an electronic, online system.

4.Provide access to a variety of publishers and their content, including the “Big 5” publisher catalogs.

5.Offer a variety of digital content formats, products, and lending formats. Offerors shall discuss the types of formats available and how often new content is added in their proposal.

6.Offer a range of collection sizes and publishers for materials for all age groups from which to choose.

7.Product will offer ease of use in selection, including providing selection and awardlistswithcorrespondingtitles available for purchasevia distributorwebsite as well as making data readily available to support selection decisions, including electronic professionalreview access

8.Product will offer ease of use for patrons in selection of content by being able to limit searches by a variety of means including format, title, author, keyword, etc.

9.Product shall offer content through any or all the following lending models:

  • One Copy One User (OCOU)
  • Metered Access by

a) time

b) checkouts or

c) a combination of the two

  • and simultaneous use.

10.Product shouldoffer both .AZW and .AZW3 file formats

11.Product shall have capability to sync across multiple patron devices. For example. A patron can stream on their mobile phone or laptop or other devise when switching from one device to the other. Offeror shall describe maximum number of devices and device platforms supported.

12.Product shouldoffer compatibility, either through device or application with most devices, including Kindle eReader and Kindle Fire, operating on common operating systems (Windows, Android, Apple, etc.)

13.Patrons shall be authenticated for service through valid HCPL library card number and individual password at the time they reserve content. Product shall also provide patrons the option to remember their ID and password for them.

14.If plug-ins are required to access product, they must be free of charge to HCPL staff and patrons, and be available in common app stores, such as Amazon, Google, and Apple.

15.Offeror app must automatically expire and remove downloaded content on patron devices when loan period is up.

16.Product shall offer ease of use to patrons.Offers shall describe in detail training that is provided to HCPL patronsin order to use their solution. Provide screen shots that HCPL patrons see when using your firm’s solution.

17.Product must automatically remove downloaded content on patron’s devices when loan period has expired.

C.Administrative and Reporting Requirements:

The Successful Offeror(s) product shall be able to provide, at a minimum, the following administrative and reporting requirements:

  1. Overview of our digital library usage, including but not limited to: overall checkouts, current checkouts, and users
  1. Separate Administrative and Reporting components
  1. Reporting options available to be exported to Excel
  1. Provide reports on collection use based on the following criteria: Format, age, genre, publisher, date.
  1. Financial and purchasing history available to HCPL
  1. Information on cost per use and turnover rate, by age, genre, and company.
  1. Allow viewing of new user registrations by day month and/or branch, if applicable.
  1. Allow viewing of user traffic statistics, including active visits and page views.
  1. Provide informationfor on holds, waiting lists, and waiting periods.
  1. Access to product’s library-managed services shall be made through a secure website and encrypted connection. Offers shall provide information in their proposal on how this will occur.
  1. Provide access to real time and historical reporting to allow HCPL staff to pull reports for number of patrons using the system for any date range.
  1. Provide access to real time and Historical reporting to allow HCPL staff to pull reports for the average download speeds experienced by our patrons using the system for any date range.

D.Technical Requirements:

  1. Product must have app available to support common platforms – Windows, tablet, Unix, IOS, Kindle devices-through The Successful Offeror(s)’s website and commercial app stores at no charge to HCPL or patron. Offeror shall list in their proposal, the locations offeror app is publicly available for download. Product must also offer a standard process integrated with OS to uninstall app.
  1. The Successful Offeror’s app shall be compatible with devices using such common operating systems as Windows, Android, Apple and Linux.
  1. Offerors shall describe in their proposal, the compatible interfaces currently available.
  1. Note any that may be planned to be discontinued or added.
  1. The Successful Offeror(s) must have stated technology path to maintain compatibility with common operating systems.
  1. Describe said technology path to maintain compatibility.
  1. Describe the compatible interfaces currently available and note any that are planned to be discontinued or added.
  1. The Successful Offeror(s) must have a compatible interface to integrate content into the library’s existing ILS, currentlySirsi Dynix Symphony Workflows.
  1. Describe the level of integration available to HCPL’s current library ILS system.
  1. Describe the product’s compatibility with available catalog overlays.
  1. The Successful Offeror(s) must provide an automated workflow to add/remove/modify content records with the Library ILS. Offeror to describe options to fully automate MARC records update with HCPL ILS system, currently Sirsi Dynix Symphony Workflows.
  1. Provide the date, time, duration, and root cause of any outage seen by patrons for the past two years.

7. The Successful Offeror(s) service must provide as many connections as our HCPL patron base (currently approximately 275,000 patrons) to support downloads and streaming.

  1. Offerors shall describe the maximum number of simultaneous connections available to HCPL cardholders.
  1. Offerors shall provide an overview of current concurrent connections over the past six months to demonstrate connections and bandwidth are available to support HCPL.
  1. The Successful Offeror(s) shall provide sufficient host resources to support concurrent responsive connections for use of its content for all HCPL connections with zero buffering as a result of host resources.

8. The Successful Offeror(s) shall provide a hosted solution requiring no HCPL servers, systems, or gateways required for patrons to use the service outside of HCPL user authentication. Offeror shall describe how the service will connect to our ILS for user authentication and will provide technical connection specifications.

9.The Successful Offeror(s) must provide a toll free number for Library IT staff to contact technical staff to address outages and configuration issues available 24x7x365 with a response time of 2 hours. The Successful Offeror(s) shall provide an email address and/or website to report issues in addition to the toll free number.

10.In the event the HCPL ILS is unavailable for authentication, the Successful Offeror’s system must display a standard message stating that service is temporarily unavailable. It is desired that when the Successful Offeror’s system is unable to contact ILS for authentication that HCPL be notified automatically though an email to .

11. Offerors shall provide access to app(s), patron and administrative interfaces, and catalog in their proposal for evaluation purposes.

E.Customer Support and Training Requirements:

  1. Customer and administrative support shall be available to HCPL staff via email, website and phone (on a toll free basis) between 9:00 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. EST Monday-Saturday (at a minimum).Support requests shall be responded to within one (1) business day of request.
  2. Support requests shall be responded to within one (1) business day of request.
  3. The Successful Offer’s product shall provide common FAQ tips such as, devices supported, devices not supported, common problems, at a minimum, that is available through a URL link in a format suitable for us to share with our patrons.
  1. The Successful Offeror(s) shall maintain a URL with current online administrative training documentation available 24x7x365 for the duration of the contract at no charge.
  1. The Successful Offeror(s) shall describe required staff training for implementation of product. Include the number of hours, the number of participants allowed, and any charges if applicable.
  1. The Successful Offeror(s) shall provide access to a dedicated account specialist responsible for the handling of escalated patron/staff issues, as well as a dedicated collection development specialist, responsible for providing assistance to CM staff, to HCPL at no charge, for the length of the contract term.

F.Pricing:

1.Offerors may provide various cost models for HCPL to consider and shall describe the structure in detail.

G.Insurance:

The Successful Offeror(s) shall include Cyber Liability as specified in Attachment A

IV.COUNTY RESPONSIBILITIES:

The County will designate an individual to act as the County’s representative with respect to the work to be performed under this contract. Such individual shall have the authority to transmit instructions, receive information, and interpret and define the County’s policies and decisions with respect to the contract.

V.ANTICIPATED SCHEDULE:

The following represents a tentative outline of the process currently anticipated by the County:

•Request for Proposals distributedOctober 28, 2016

•Advertised in newspaperOctober 30, 2016

•Questions received no later thanNovember 10, 2016

•Receive written proposals2:00 p.m.; December 2, 2016

•Oral Interviews/NegotiationsDecember 16, 2016

•Contract/installation begins February, 2017

VI.GENERAL CONTRACT TERMS AND CONDITIONS:

  1. Annual Appropriations

It is understood and agreed that the contract resulting from this procurement (“Contract”) shall be subject to annual appropriations by the County of Henrico, Board of Supervisors. Should the Board fail to appropriate funds for this Contract, the Contract shall be terminated when existing funds are exhausted. The Successful Offeror (“Successful Offeror” or “contractor”) shall not be entitled to seek redress from the County or its elected officials, officers, agents, employees, or volunteers should the Board of Supervisors fail to make annual appropriations for the Contract.