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FBO DAILY ISSUE OF AUGUST 03, 2006 FBO #1711
SOLICITATION NOTICE

R -- Subject Indexing Services

Notice Date

6/8/2006
 

Notice Type

Solicitation Notice
 

NAICS

561499 — All Other Business Support Services
 

Contracting Office

Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Acquisition and Property Division, Acqusition Branch (DC), 1280 Maryland Avenue, SW Suite 580C, Washington, DC, 20024-2142
 

ZIP Code

20024-2142
 

Solicitation Number

DJJ-CSREES-2006-013
 

Response Due

6/22/2006
 

Point of Contact

Douglas Joyner, Purchasing Agent, Phone 202-720-4955, Fax 202-720-3987, - Douglas Joyner, Purchasing Agent, Phone 202-720-4955, Fax 202-720-3987,
 

E-Mail Address

djoyner@ars.usda.gov, djoyner@ars.usda.gov
 

Description

The United States Department of Agriculture, Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service[ ], has a need for Subject Indexing as specified below: A. General Requirements 1. The contractor shall provide all the necessary expertise, facilities, supplies, reference materials, and equipment for concept indexing research and education project summaries contained in the Current Research Information System (CRIS) database. 2. The contractor shall provide a microcomputer capable of connecting to the CRIS database through the Internet and compatible with the application software provided by the government. 3. The contractor shall select indexing terms for project summaries provided by the government accessed via the Internet. The number of records to be indexed under this contract will range from 4,800 to 7,200 per year. 4. The contractor shall be directly responsible for all work required by this contract. The contractor shall provide adequate supervision of the work which contractor employees are performing to ensure that it is complete, satisfactory, and in accordance with the terms of this contract. Telephone and/or e-mail contact shall be available at all times between the contractor, Contracting Officer (CO), and the Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR). The government will not exercise any direct supervision or control over contractor employees performing services under this contract. They shall be accountable solely to the contractor, who in turn, shall be accountable to the government. B. Specific Requirements 1. The contractor shall assign indexing terms to each project summary provided by the government in batches consisting of three hundred (300) to four hundred and fifty (450) documents. 2. The contractor shall select indexing terms based on concepts expressed in the project titles, text of objectives, approach, and non-technical summary, investigator-supplied keywords, classification codes, and progress reports (if any) appearing on the record as viewed with the software provided by the government. The source of the data is Forms AD-416/417 (Enclosures 1A/1B). (Classification codes are detailed in the Manual of Classification for Agricultural and Forestry Research, Education, and Extension, Revision VII, provided by the government.) 3. The contractor shall index each record as in-depth as permitted by the nature of the project. To the maximum extent possible, the contractor shall select terms already included in the latest version of the CRIS vocabulary. (See Enclosure 3, Indexing Procedures, and Indexing CRIS Projects Using STAR Client, provided by the government at contract start, for details of the indexing process.) 4. The contractor shall create and/or select new, provisional indexing terms that are not in the current vocabulary file when, in the judgment of the contractor, the term: • will enhance retrieval of the project, • is relevant to the subject of the project, and • no other existing term or combination of existing terms will suffice as an index entry. 5. The contractor shall enter the indexing terms over the contractor’s Internet connection into a computer transaction file using VPN client and STAR Client software provided by the government. (See Enclosure 4, Sample STAR Client Screen Prints.) The records to be indexed will be made available to the contractor for indexing on a periodic basis. Government-Furnished Items The government will furnish the following: A. At contract start, one (1) copy of the Manual of Classification for Agri¬cultural and Forestry Research, Education, and Extension, Revi¬sion VII. Up to five (5) addition¬al copies may be provided on request. B. At contract start, a sample printout of one hundred (100) CRIS projects showing the title, objectives, approach, non-technical summary, classifica¬tion codes, and keywords posted for each project. C. At contract start, one (1) copy of the VPN client software to connect to the Agency’s network, one (1) copy of the STAR Client software to access the application, and one (1) copy of the instructions for installing the software. D. Within two (2) weeks from contract start, the government shall provide indexing training. One (1) indexing trai¬ning session of up to two (2) days in length will be conducted at the CRIS site. Training will be provided for up to five (5) person¬nel and will cover the following: 1. CRIS system over¬view 2. Keyword¬ processing - over¬view Input documents Classification Manual CRIS keyword and vocabulary update pro¬cessing 3. Demonstration of searching the CRIS file on the Internet 4. CRIS indexing conventions 5. Indexing, editing, and vocabulary maintenance procedures using the STAR Client program 6. Indexing exercises. E. Following review of each completed batch of indexing records, the government will notify the contractor by e-mail of its acceptance or rejection of the batch and any proposed new indexing terms. Deliverables and Reporting Requirements F. Contractor Deliverables The contractor shall provide the government with the follow¬ing: 1. For each batch of indexed projects, one (1) e-mail notification to the government that the latest batch of indexing records has been completed. The notification shall include a list of proposed new terms and shall identify the records on which they appear. G. Delivery Schedule 4. At contract start, or following indexing training, if needed, the government shall provide the contractor with access to the first batch of project summaries to be indexed. The batch will consist of four hundred and fifty projects in a transaction file accessed via the Internet. 2. The contractor shall complete indexing of the first batch of records and notify the government by e-mail within three (3) weeks of receiving access to the records. 3. The remaining project summaries, in batches ranging from three hundred (300) to four hundred fifty 450 records, shall be made available to the contractor for processing at three (3) week intervals during the contract period. Any deviations from the schedule must be approved in advance by the COR. H. Delivery Dates Delivery under this procurement is defined as the date deliv¬erables are post¬marked by the U.S. Postal Service, if mailed, or if hand-carried, the date of actual exchange of deliver¬ables be¬tween the contractor and the government. Electronic records are considered delivered when an e-mail notification has been sent. V. Performance Standards and Quality Control A. Government Review of Completed Work The government (COR or another assigned specialist) shall review all indexing performed by the contractor for accept¬ability. The following factors shall be included in the review crite¬ria for indexing: 1. Appropriateness of index terms for retrieval of the project 2. Relevancy and technical accuracy of index terms 3. Adherence to CRIS indexing conventions 4. Depth and breadth of indexing 5. Spelling (of proposed new terms) The government, at its option, may request correction or modi¬fica¬tion of one or more indexed projects by the contractor if it is determined by the reviewer that contractor indexing is deficient as measured by one or more of the following criteria: 1. If more than one (1) indexing term per every ten (10) projects is consid¬ered to be any of the following: a. Inappropriate for retrieval b. Irrelevant c. Technically inaccurate 2. If more than one (1) project out of every ten (10) pro¬jects is under-in¬dexed; i.e., indexing in which one or more major subject concepts in a project or one or more specific organisms, practices, systems, proce¬dures, or similar attributes which are central to the work are not repre¬sented in the indexing. In the event the government determines that indexing is deficient, all deficiencies shall be identified by the government in an e-mail notification to the contractor. The records to be corrected or modified will be available for access by the contractor on the indexing transaction file. For all projects returned for indexing deficiencies, the contractor shall make the required corrections and notify the government by e-mail when all corrections have been completed. B. Completion of Indexing A project indexed by the contractor shall not be considered to have been satis¬factorily com¬pleted until all indexing on the project has been accepted by the gov¬ernment. The gov¬ernment shall notify the contractor that pro¬jects were selected for re-indexing or modifi¬cation/correc¬tion within three (3) weeks of receipt by the government of the origi¬nally indexed projects. All re-indexing, modification, and/or correction shall take precedence over any original in¬dex¬ing which may be in prog¬ress. No new indexing batches shall be submitted until all re-indexing or corrections have been completed. The contractor shall bill the government only once for each project indexed and accepted, re¬gardless of the number of times a project is returned for re-indexing or modifica¬tion/correc¬tion. VI. Reporting Requirements The contractor shall submit a progress report at least semi-annually covering work accomplished during that period of the contract performance. Delivery may be by mail, fax, or as an e-mail attachment. The progress report shall be brief and factual and shall be prepared in accordance with the following format: A. A cover page containing: 1. Contract number and title; 2. Type of report, sequence number of report, and period of performance being reported; and 3. Contractor’s name and address. B. Section I - A description of current technical or substantive performance, and any problem(s) which may have impeded performance, along with proposed corrective action. C. Section II - Financial information to include: 1. The amount expended during the current reporting period, and 2. Total project-to-date expenditures. INCLUSIONS FOR INSTRUCTIONS TO QUOTERS I. Pricing of Quote Offerors must provide a price for the base year of performance and each subsequent option year, including a price per indexed project. Base year - Basic Requirement not to exceed 7,200 projects $ - Price per project $ I. Option Year One - Basic Requirement not to exceed 7,200 projects $ - Price per project $ II. Option Year Two - Basic Requirement not to exceed 7,200 projects $ - Price per project $ III. Option Year Three - Basic Requirement not to exceed 7,200 projects $ - Price per project $ TOTAL of Base and Options $ II. Evaluation Criteria A. Education and Work Experience for Proposed Personnel Contractor shall submit documentation detailing educational background and experi¬ence for each person which the contractor proposes to assign to this procurement. Educational background, in¬cluding degrees and dates awarded, work expe¬rience in index¬ing and/or library or information science fields, plus current employment must be specified. B. Qualifications for Indexers The personnel proposed as indexers should have the following qualifications: 1a. Education A Bachelors degree or higher in the agricultural, biological, or related life sciences. Disciplines include, but are not limited to: botany, zoology, biochemistry, agronomy, entomology, animal science, veterinary science, plant pathology, plant physiology, virology, microbiology, horticulture, soil science, and forestry. --and-- 1b. Experience At least one (1) year of work experience in library or information system/center operations or functions including such applications in or related to: • subject indexing and analysis • information and reference services • science literature • descriptive bibliography • online database retrieval • descriptive cataloging and classification • thesaurus design and development • vocabulary control and maintenance --or-- 2. A combination of an advanced degree (M.S., Ph.D., etc.) in library science, information science, or a related discipline and evidence of coursework or experience in the agricultural, biological, or life sciences. --or-- 3. Extensive experience in subject indexing and analysis in the agricultural, biological, or life sciences. C. Addition or Replacement of Indexers If, prior to start of the period or during the course of perfor¬mance of work under the procurement, the contractor finds it necessary to assign additional indexers or replace those ori¬ginally pro¬posed as indexers, the contractor shall provide the government evidence that such personnel possess technical qualifications equal to or better than the technical qualifi¬cations of the indexers origi¬nally proposed. An independent "equal to" or "better than" determina¬tion shall be made by the gov¬ernment on the basis of the documentation submitted. The government will notify the contractor of its determina¬tion within two weeks of receiving documentation for any new¬ly proposed indexer. Until and unless an "equal to" or better than" deter¬mi¬nation is made, no newly proposed indexer shall be assigned to perform work under the procurement. III. Period of Performance The estimated period of performance is as follows: Base year July 1, 2006 – June 30, 2007 Option year I July 1, 2007 – June 30, 2008 Option year II July 1, 2008 – June 30, 2009 Option year III July 1, 2009 – June 30, 2010 IV. Payment Invoices may be submitted monthly, based on the number of projects indexed and accepted by the government. Please email you bids to Douglas.Joyner@ars.usda.gov by 2:00 p.m. eastern standard time, on June 22, 2006 NOTE: THIS NOTICE MAY HAVE POSTED ON FEDBIZOPPS ON THE DATE INDICATED IN THE NOTICE ITSELF (08-JUN-2006). IT ACTUALLY APPEARED OR REAPPEARED ON THE FEDBIZOPPS SYSTEM ON 01-AUG-2006, BUT REAPPEARED IN THE FTP FEED FOR THIS POSTING DATE. PLEASE CONTACT fbo.support@gsa.gov REGARDING THIS ISSUE.
 

Web Link

Link to FedBizOpps document.
(http://www.fbo.gov/spg/USDA/ARS/PPBDC/DJJ-CSREES-2006-013/listing.html)
 

Place of Performance

Address: USDA-CSREES 800 9TH STREET, S.W. WASHINGTON, D.C.

Zip Code: 20024

Country: USA
 

Record

SN01103724-F 20060803/060801222949 (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)

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