Federal Library and Information Center Committee

Library of Congress

Washington DC 20540-4930

FEDLINK Member Handbook—FY2000

Services

Section II


II. Services

List of Current FEDLINK Vendors

1. Electronic Information Retrieval Services

1.1 Competition Requirements

1.2 User IDs and Passwords

1.3 License Agreements

1.4 Subscription Pricing

2. Publications Acquisitions Services

2.1 Budgeting for Publications Services

(a) Publications Accounts

(b) No-Year and Multi-Year Funds

2.2 Books Acquisitions

(a) Books Vendors' Services

—Regular Orders

—Approval Plans

—Leasing Plans

—Processing and Acquisitions Control

(b) Competition Requirements

(c) Transfer Pay Blanket Purchase Agreements

(d) Direct Pay Service

(e) BPA Advantages

2.3 Document Delivery

(a) Document Suppliers' Services

(b) Competition Requirements

(c) Commercial Deposit Accounts

2.4 Microform Acquisitions

(a) Microform Suppliers' Services

(b) Competition Requirements

(c) Back Orders

2.5 Serials Subscription Agents

(a) Serials Agents' Services

(b) Competition Requirements

(c) Renewing a Prior Competition

(d) Transfer Pay Competition

—Orders Over $100,000

—Orders $100,000 and Under

(e) Direct Pay Competition

(f) Pricing

—Standard Pricing

—Firm-Fixed Pricing

(g) Serials Industry Deadlines

(h) Register Without Delay

(i) For Help with Your Competition

3. Library Support and Education Services

3.1 Bibliographic Utilities - OCLC and RLIN

(a) OCLC Membership Options

(b) Joining OCLC

(c) Canceling OCLC Service

(d) Renewing OCLC Service

(e) FEDLINK OCLC Team Communications

(f) OCLC Usage Data Online on ALIX-FS

—Online Files Show All OCLC Activity

—You Can Import OCLC Data

—Use FEDLINK Category Fields

—To Access ALIX-FS and Download Files

—Use the Data to Track Operations, Analyze Options, and Improve Service

(g) FY2000 Deadlines for OCLC Accounts and Orders

3.2 Copyright Clearance Center Services (CR)

(a) Key Features of the License

—Works You Can Photocopy

—Limits on Photocopying

—Participating in a Survey

—Publishers Waive Claims

(b) The Cost of the License

(c) How to Establish a CCC Account

—You Add CR to Your IAG

—You Complete Your Part of the License Agreement

—LC/C&L Issues Your Delivery Order

—CCC Signs the License

(d) For More Information

3.3 FLICC/FEDLINK Educational Services

(a) The FLICC/FEDLINK Training (FT) Account

(b) Standard Government Training Forms

(c) OCLC Pacific Training Opportunities

(d) Other Training Accounts

(e) Contractor Staff Attendance

3.4 ILL Fee Payment Services

(a) ILL Fee Payment Service (IN)

(b) OCLC ILL Fee Management (IFM) Service (OC)

(c) Consider ILL Costs vs. Document Delivery Costs

3.5 Technical Processing Services

(a) Setting Up Technical Processing (TZ) Services on Your IAG

—Establish a TZ Account

—Inform FEDLINK of Your Intent

(b) Competitions

—Lowest Price

—Lowest Price Among Technically Acceptable Offers

—Best Value

(c) Preparing Your Technical Requirements

—Job Sheets

—Specifications

—Samples

—Additional Technical Capabilities

—Evaluation Factors

(d) OCLC Component of Technical Processing Work

—OCLC Charges Bill to Year the Work is Performed

—OCLC Charges Estimated in RFQ

 


II. Services

Following is a list of the companies with which LC/FEDLINK has basic ordering agreements in place for the coming fiscal year as of December 30, 1999. Use this list and the online descriptions of vendor services updated daily at the FLICC/FEDLINK Web site's Online Services Directory (http://lcweb.loc.gov/flicc/mmcontr.html) for a complete list of vendors.

FEDLINK issues special Information Alerts as additional vendors are added to the program. You may add new vendors to your interagency agreement with LC/FEDLINK during the year. To obtain a copy of a particular vendor's FEDLINK BOA, catalog, or pricing information, please call the vendor directly at the phone numbers listed in the Online Services Directory.

 

BOA

Service ID

Vendor

Electronic Publications and Document Delivery—As of January 3, 2000

98CLFB70038 CA American Chemical Society
98CLFB70004 BK Back Associates, Inc.
98CLFB70009 UM Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company (UMI)**
98CLFB70042 NA Bureau of National Affairs
98CLFB70022 CC CCH Incorporated
98CLFB70034 CT CDB Infotek
98CLFB70013 SA Cambridge Scientific Abstracts
998CLFB70039 RC Canada Institute for Scientific & Technical Information
98CLFB70035 CH Chadwyck-Healey, Inc.
99CLFB70004 CO Columbia University Press
98CLFB70003 CQ Congressional Quarterly, Inc.
00CLFB70003 CW CountryWatch.com
99CLFB70009 CB Credit Bureau Services of Texas
98CLFB70050 DM DRI McGraw Hill
98CLFB70010 DG Database Technologies, Inc.
98CLFB70048 DS Data Star
96CLFB70003 DE Datatrace Information Services Co., Inc
98CLFB70049 DI Dialog Corporation
98CLFB70046 MD Dialog Corporation (Profound)
99CLFB70010 DR DISCLOSURE, INC.
98CLFB70047 DJ Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
98CLFB70051 DU Dun & Bradstreet
99CLFB70012 EH EBSCO Publishing
99CLFB70006 EV East View Publications, Inc.
98CLFB70028 UE Engineering Information, Inc.
98CLFB70103 ET Enterprise Training Solutions
98CLFB70037 FO Faxon Company, Inc.
98CLFB70037 FO Faxon Company, Inc.
98CLFB70054 FR Federal Research Service
99CLFB70011 GR Gale Group
98CLFB70105 GS Global Securities Information, Inc.
98CLFB70029 EA Grolier Educational, Inc.
98CLFB70026 WI H.W. Wilson Company
98CLFB70025 DY IHS Energy Group dba Petro Info/Dwight's
98CLFB70021 PN IHS Federal Products
98CLFB70006 IA Information Access Company
99CLFB70101 NF Infotrieve
98CLFB70032 AI InfoUSA, Inc.
98CLFB70027 UI Institute for Scientific Information (ISI)
98CLFB70108 JN Jane's Information Group
98CLFB70005 ML LEXIS-NEXIS
98CLFB70024 PS LRP Publications, Inc.
98CLFB70018 LC Library Corporation
98CLFB70002 NB NewsBank, Inc.
98CLFB70014 DT NewsEDGE Corporation
99CLFB70003 NR Northern Light Technology, LLC.
95CLFB70021 BR Ovid Technologies, Inc.*
98CLFB70102 PG Peterson's
00CLFB70002 PW Powerize.com
98CLFB70056 AP Press Association, Inc.
99CLFB70001 PZ Primary Source Media
98CLFB70106 QR Quality Resource Systems, Inc.
00CLFB70001 QL QUICKLAW America, Inc.
98CLFB70012 OR Questel/Orbit, Inc.
98CLFB70015 RB Reed Elsevier - New Providence
98CLFB70044 RI Research Institute of America, Inc.
98CLFB70044 RI Research Institute of America, Inc.
98CLFB70057 SH Reuters News Media America
98CLFB70104 RH Runzheimer International, Ltd.
98CLFB70017 TR TRO Learning, Inc.
98CLFB70053 TA Tax Analysts
98CLFB70023 CU UnCover Company
98CLFB70033 UC United Communications Group
99CLFB70008 NC Wave Phore Newscast, Inc.
98CLFB70055 WG WEFA Group, Inc.
98CLFB70055 WG WEFA Group, Inc.
98CLFB70007 WE West Group
98CLFB70016 EN WinStar Telebase, Inc.

Publication Acquisitions Services—Books

96CLFB74513 AC Academic Book Center
96CLFB74526 AJ Alfred Jaeger, Inc.
96CLFB74502 AB Ambassador Book Service, Inc.
96CLFB74504 OV American Overseas Book Company
96CLFB74518 BA Baker & Taylor, Inc.
96CLFB74510 BN Blackwell North America dba Blackwell's Book Services
96CLFB74517 BD Brodart Company
96CLFB74519 CS Communication Skills, Inc.
96CLFB74521 CL Coutts Library Services, Inc.
96CLFB74509 DW Dawson Subscription Services, Book Ordering Division
96CLFB74501 FB Franklin Book Company, Inc.
96CLFB74525 NP Jeffrey Norton Publishers, Inc.
96CLFB74503 LR LRP Publications
96CLFB74514 LB Login Brothers Book Company, Inc.
96CLFB74515 MW Midwest Library Service
96CLFB74508 NL National Law Resource, Inc.
96CLFB74506 PR Professional Media Service Corp.
96CLFB74527 MR Rittenhouse Book Distributor
96CLFB74528 SN Sanad Support Technologies, Inc.
96CLFB74520 WP West Group
96CLFB74505 YB Yankee Book Peddler, Inc.

Publication Acquisitions Services—Serials

99CLFB71003 OB American Overseas Book Company, Inc.
99CLFB71004 RE Blackwell Information Services
99CLFB71001 EB EBSCO Subscription Services
99CLFB71002 FX Faxon Company, Inc.
SZ Serials Subscription Service (generic)

Library Support Services

97CLFB74200 IN American Overseas Book Company, Inc.-ILL Fee Payment
96CLFB77004 TC Capcon Library Network*
00CLFB78001 CN Capcon Library Network Training*
96CLFB76000 CR Copyright Clearance Center, Inc.*
96CLFB77005 TB Costabile Associates, Inc.*
98CLFBFT000 FT FEDLINK Education and Training*
96CLFB77003 TD Library Systems and Services, L.L.C.*
00CLFB78002 NY NYLINK*
96CLFB73001 OC OCLC, Online Computer Library Center, Inc.*
96CLFB77001 TP OCLC, Online Computer Library Center, Inc.*
96CLFB73002 RL Research Libraries Group, Inc.
96CLFB77006 TS Telesec Library Services*
*Transfer Pay Only
**Microform Suppliers

 

1. Electronic Information Retrieval Services

LC/FEDLINK BOAs for electronic information retrieval services provide access to the computer-based information offered by commercial information providers. These services do not include development or implementation of databases, software, systems, or telecommunications connections for any specific customer. Nor do FEDLINK services include equipment, furniture, supplies, or personnel services.

FEDLINK's electronic information retrieval services provide computerized access, search and retrieval from commercial systems that cover extensive and varied subject areas. These electronic publications are typically composed of full-text documents, bibliographic citations, numerical, directory, or graphic data. The systems' search software and indexing are powerful tools.

With online services, the vendor usually issues you a user ID and password and may provide access software for the system. You use the Web or dial access to login to the vendor's system and use the electronic publications that are maintained on the vendor's computer. You search and view items online and may download or print records in a variety of record formats. With many systems, you may create search strategies on subjects of recurring interest. The system will rerun your searches regularly and send you the results automatically.

Some vendors provide electronic publications on CD-ROM, tape, diskette, or in some other format for you to install at your own facility. These files may simply be an alternate delivery format for an online file or printed work, or may be a new work published originally or solely in electronic format. Fixed media electronic publications are frequently offered in stand-alone or local or wide area network (LAN or WAN) versions.

Electronic serials are publications that typically include articles, tables, illustrations and other material that appear in an issue of a scholarly journal, a magazine, newspaper, or other periodical publication. E-serials may be published solely in electronic format or may be electronic versions of traditional print periodicals. They are usually provided on a subscription basis to a defined set of users within an organization or to a consortium of institutions. Subscribers typically receive issues through electronic mail or access them via the Web.

Gateway retrieval services offer you single-point access to online systems run by different vendors. Often, the gateway service also provides a single search interface to use across different systems and centralizes administration and billing for activity in the systems you access.

Electronic delivery of documents is also a form of information retrieval offered by FEDLINK vendors. See the Document Delivery section for more information.

Descriptions of vendors are available at the FLICC/FEDLINK Web site at http://lcweb.loc.gov/flicc/mmcontr.html.

1.1 Competition Requirements

The FAR requires formal competition of orders above the simplified acquisition threshold of $100,000 (as described in the Federal Acquisitions Streamlining Act), advertisement of orders over $25,000, and informal competition between $2,500 and $100,000. Currently, for transfer pay customers, LC/C&L advertise your order by putting a synopsis in the Commerce Business Daily (CBD) for requirements that exceed $25,000. If you are a direct pay customer, your contracting officer must also synopsize your requirements or have a waiver from the advertising/synopsis procedure. A CBD synopsis must run for 15 days prior to issuing an order for $25,000 - $100,000. Orders over $100,000 must be in the CBD for 30 days prior to issuing any orders. To reduce possible delays in starting services for transfer pay customers, LC/C&L will synopsize your requirements as soon as FEDLINK receives your Registration Form. If you are a direct pay customer, you should be in touch with your contracting officer to place a synopsis at the same time you register for FEDLINK. This way, the synopsis period will be complete and your orders can be issued soon after your IAG is signed (usually in October). You should advise your agency's competition advocate of the placement of all orders over $100,000.

1.2 User IDs and Passwords

After you receive your delivery order to begin an online service, you should contact the vendor to request as many access authorizations as your users will need. During the year, you must monitor the user IDs that are active under your service accounts, ensuring that only authorized individuals have system access, deleting user IDs that are no longer necessary, and requesting new access as needed. If you are a transfer pay customer, FEDLINK maintains a record of the user IDs associated with each of your accounts in order to process your invoices correctly. You should notify FEDLINK Fiscal Operations when you delete or add user IDs so that FEDLINK invoice processors can reject inappropriate charges and approve charges for new users.

User IDs or passwords for access to online and gateway services are issued and maintained by the vendor, not by FEDLINK. You should contact the vendor directly to add, change, or cancel your authorizations. The exception to this is access and authorization for the OCLC system, which FEDLINK Network Operations handles.

1.3 License Agreements

Vendors of electronic publications frequently have license agreements for their systems. Some licenses include terms established by the vendor for proprietary products; others simply pass-through terms established by the original publisher of the material or creator of the software. FEDLINK vendors' licensing agreements are reviewed when the LC/FEDLINK BOAs are established to be sure their terms are generally acceptable to the government.

Because compliance with licensing agreements is a local responsibility, LC/FEDLINK does not sign individual license agreements on your behalf. LC/C&L and the LC Office of the General Counsel are available to discuss individual licensing agreements with you as necessary. If you have questions please contact LC/C&L, (202) 707-0461.

1.4 Subscription Pricing

FEDLINK is pleased to announce the availability of subscription pricing for electronic publications services. Now, not only can you have annual subscriptions to CD-ROM publications from participating vendors, you can also order a subscription to an online system for a fixed period of time, a finite amount of service, and a fixed price. As with other publications, subscriptions to electronic publications can be ordered and paid for with funds from the year the subscription is ordered, and will be delivered over the course of the subscription period. Not all online vendors offer the subscription pricing option; please refer to the FLICC/FEDLINK Web site or contact FEDLINK or LC/C&L for information about specific vendor offerings.

Advance payment for publications, including electronic publications, is authorized for "charges for publications recorded in any way for the auditory or visual use of the agency" according to 31 U.S.C. §3324(d)(2). In addition, the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act's new provision on contracting for severable services across fiscal years allows the obligation of current year funds for services to be performed over the following 12 months. (See 41 U.S.C. 253(l) and FAR 37.106.)

Subscription pricing helps you earn volume discounts, control database services costs, and provide continuity of service into the next fiscal year. With subscription pricing you can predict overall expenses and limit open access by setting up finite subscriptions for particular units in your organization. Features of subscription services include:

  • Format—The vendors may have defined their subscriptions as a specific number of online hours or searches, as a specific funding amount, or as usage for a specific period of time.
  • Period—Whatever its form, the subscription may last for a period up to 12 months, beginning on the day the order is placed.
  • Billing—As with print subscriptions, electronic subscriptions will be invoiced and paid up front. Because the subscription is prepaid, if you ordered a subscription in the current year and also sign up for the service for the next year, it is very important you monitor your statements to be sure you are not charged for usage next year that was already covered under your subscription.
  • Reporting—The vendor will supply a monthly report of your usage under the subscription so that you can track the "draw down" of your pre-paid amount. Depending on the format of your online subscription, you will be able to track the number of hours or searches remaining, the funding amount available, or the extent of monthly usage under an open access subscription.
  • User IDs—To make it easier to keep usage associated with the subscription separate from regular online access, many of the vendors are able to assign separate user IDs that only bill against the subscription. This also makes it possible to control expenditures by ordering separate, finite subscriptions for separate sets of users.

2. Publications Acquisitions Services

FEDLINK's BOAs for publication acquisitions bring professional standards for acquiring library materials and knowledge of the book and serials trade to federal contracting. FEDLINK publications vendors include book jobbers and serials agents, as well as major book publishers (that do not sell through jobbers), document delivery services, and microform suppliers.

Descriptions of vendors are available at the FLICC/FEDLINK Web site at http://lcweb.loc.gov/flicc/mmcontr.html.

2.1 Budgeting for Publications

(a) Publications Accounts

Books, serials, document delivery, and microform accounts are maintained separately by fiscal year, and publications invoices are charged to the fiscal year in which you ordered the item. The year the jobber/agent placed the order with the publisher, or the year when the items are delivered or invoiced is not relevant for determining your order date or the fiscal year of your order. For example, books ordered in September but not delivered until after October 1st are charged to the fiscal year in which you ordered them; serials subscription charges, including supplementals and bill-laters, are charged to the fiscal year in which you ordered the subscription, even for subscriptions that last for more than one calendar year. This means it is very important to budget enough funds for your publications in the year you will place the order.

Publications accounts remain open at FEDLINK for three years after the funds' original fiscal year, allowing ample time for back orders to be filled and invoices to clear. You must maintain sufficient funds in your accounts each fiscal year to cover all the invoices for that year's orders, even when the invoices are submitted at a later date. Three years after the original year your publications account will be closed, funds remaining in your account will be refunded, and your agency will assume direct responsibility for payment of any outstanding invoices.

(b) No-Year and Multi-Year Funds

FEDLINK cannot automatically move your no-year and multi-year funds into new publications accounts for the coming year. With publications services, only you know how many physical items you have ordered that have not yet been billed, or how many serials supplemental charges have yet to appear on your invoices, and so only you can project what your available balance will be. Therefore, you need to tell FEDLINK exactly how much money is free to move forward from your no-year/multi-year books or serials account. This makes the publications accounts no-year/multi-year process different from the electronic information retrieval services process. With online services, your actual available balance is known as soon as your current year's September invoices clear, so FEDLINK can move your remaining balance forward automatically.

For your books and serials no-year/multi-year accounts, you may either wait until all your current year invoices clear to identify the actual available balance and have FEDLINK move that forward, or you may figure a conservative estimate of the surplus in the account and have FEDLINK move that amount forward. When you know the amount you want to move forward, submit a Transfer Pay Account Adjustment form to FEDLINK Fiscal Operations.

2.2 Books Acquisitions

Book wholesalers (or jobbers) provide a central channel for acquiring trade and professional books in all subject areas: textbooks, government documents, association publications, juvenile titles, foreign books, and other specialized publications. Although this category is called "books," the vendors provide materials in many different formats—hardcover and soft cover books, technical reports, reprints, out-of-print titles, videos, sound recordings, and other audio-visuals, books on CD-ROM, large print or braille materials, etc. Usually, book jobbers offer significant discounts from publishers' list price. They are able to supply popular titles, locate specialized or difficult-to-find materials and provide advance information about forthcoming titles. FEDLINK also offers BOAs with several publishers that sell directly to customers instead of operating through jobbers.

(a) Books Vendors' Services

—Regular Orders

All FEDLINK books vendors are required to handle one time or "firm orders" for individual titles. Standing orders, which commit the Government to purchasing particular items year after year (whether or not funds are available or contracts are in place), are not allowed under FEDLINK BOAs. Some vendors supply items from inventory in their warehouses; some order directly from the publisher. All will handle rush orders and back orders as necessary. Vendors charge the publisher's list price, then calculate a discount or service fee based on the category of materials and number of copies you purchase. The vendors can handle multiple copy orders and frequently provide deep discounts for large purchases.

Under FEDLINK BOAs, book vendors have indicated the categories of materials they can supply and highlighted the ones they specialize in. The possible categories include:

  • subjects—general (fiction and nonfiction), legal, medical and health science, business and social science, scientific and technical, etc.
  • formats—trade books, textbooks, audiovisual, non-English language, juvenile materials, etc.
  • sources—university presses, association and society presses, foreign presses, out-of-print materials, etc.

—Approval Plans

Under an approval plan, the vendor automatically sends you publications that match a collection profile you develop. You "approve" and retain the books the vendor sends you and return any items you decide are not appropriate to add to your collection. You only pay for the publications you keep. Under another type of approval plan, the vendor sends you slips, forms, or other selection tools for items that match your profile (instead of sending the actual books) and you choose which items the vendor should ship. Under approval plans, items are shipped to you at the vendor's expense, but may need to be returned at your expense.

Your approval profile is typically set up by subject area and collection depth (e.g. engineering—comprehensive), and establishes other collection parameters such as format, language, place of publication, and price range. Your profile usually follows the LC classification system or the vendor's own subject thesaurus. To be sure that your profile is effective, you should keep track of your return rate (the number of items you do not approve) and review and update your selection criteria regularly. When you first set up your profile, you might check its accuracy by asking the vendor to run it against his database and produce a report of titles that match the profile; then compare the profile report to the list of titles you actually purchased last year.

Approval plans are intended to reduce your collection development burden by taking advantage of the vendors' relationships with publishers, knowledge of forthcoming titles, and vast databases of titles. They are also intended to improve your efficiency by reducing your acquisitions paperwork. Approval plans can be useful at both ends of the collection development spectrum—in routine collection areas where your staff specialists' skills would be wasted on individual selection and ordering and in esoteric subject areas where your familiarity with the book trade may be limited.

—Leasing Plans

Some vendors allow you to lease publications instead of buying them. This way, you can expand the resources available to your users by obtaining the popular titles they want, without having to buy multiple copies for your permanent collection. Leasing extra copies also extends the shelf life of your heavily-used titles. The publications are supplied in shelf-ready condition, with catalog records, call numbers, book pockets, date due slips, etc. With leasing plans, you retain an option to purchase leased items at a reduced price when the lease term is over.

—Processing and Acquisitions Control

Some books vendors offer library processing for the items they supply. Both physical processing (adding covers, book pockets, circulation cards, spine labels, bar codes, security strips, or other items to make the book shelf-ready) and technical processing (providing cataloging and classification data on cards or in machine readable form) are available.

Books vendors may also provide a computer-based order processing system to help make your acquisitions control work more efficiently. Many have online systems for you to place and track orders by dial-up or Internet access.

(b) Competition Requirements

You should review the FEDLINK vendors' specialty areas and the discounts they offer and choose a supplier who can fulfill your requirements in the most effective and efficient manner. FEDLINK strongly recommends that you allocate your book funds across more than one account. Establishing service with more than one book jobber gives you flexibility to choose the best source for a particular title, e.g., the cheapest, the fastest, the one who has the book in stock, the one with the Spanish-language edition, and so forth. With multiple accounts you can rotate your orders among established vendors. Having regular competition also keeps the vendors attentive to your service needs.

For single orders over $100,000 the government must fulfill formal competition requirements. Such large orders may only be placed by a contracting officer. If you are a transfer pay customer, LC/C&L will conduct the request for quotation (RFQ) on your large order for you; if you are a direct pay customer, you will need to work with your local contracting officer to place a large single order. Even if you do not routinely place single orders of $100,000, you can benefit from formally competing your books requirements among the FEDLINK vendors. LC/C&L will be happy to conduct an RFQ for you.

(c) Transfer Pay Blanket Purchase Agreements

If you are a transfer pay user, LC/C&L will establish a Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) for each books vendor you use under a FEDLINK BOA. Each BPA identifies which individuals from your agency will be allowed to place book orders and sets a not-to-exceed amount on your cumulative purchases from that vendor. The not-to-exceed amount is the same as the service dollar amount specified on your signed IAG. The BPA authorizes you to submit individual orders of less than $100,000 directly to the vendor, but requires that all orders over $100,000 be placed by a contracting officer. Using a BPA does not justify purchasing only from one source or otherwise avoiding small business or set-aside requirements. (See FAR 13.204.) FEDLINK recommends you establish accounts with more than one books supplier.

When returning your signed IAG, you must supply the names of individuals who should be identified as book ordering officials on your BPA. For orders of $100,000 or less, the book ordering officials will be responsible for securing pricing information before placing orders, maintaining a BPA log of all orders placed, and forwarding the BPA log to LC/C&L on a quarterly basis. The BPA log is a log of your orders, not a log of individual titles. A sample BPA log is provided in the Appendix to this Handbook.

You may use the sample, devise a log of your own, or use one generated by your acquisitions system, provided your log captures the information on the sample. You must forward orders over $100,000 to LC/C&L, for a contracting officer to get quotations from the FEDLINK books vendors. You should identify in writing any special requirements you may have for such a large books order. For example, your order may be for textbooks which must be delivered before the start date for agency classes, or it may be a multi-copy order with volumes that must be shipped to sites across the country. An LC contracting officer will competitively place the order based on your requirements.

(d) Direct Pay Service

If you use books services under the direct pay option, you must follow your agency's contracting procedures to meet competition requirements and your contracting officers are responsible for orders over your agency's simplified acquisition threshold. Your contracting officer is not required to establish a BPA if your agency prefers another mechanism. As part of FEDLINK's reporting requirements, however, it is necessary for you to forward copies of your purchase orders over $100,000 to FEDLINK on a monthly basis and your BPA logs (when BPAs are issued) to LC/C&L on a quarterly basis.

(e) BPA Advantages

One advantage of a BPA is that it allows your agency's professional library staff— who are skilled in the book trade—to place the library's orders for individual titles directly with the vendor. This reduces the workload associated with sending individual, title-specific purchase orders through your contracting office. The BPA logs that the ordering official must keep will provide documentation of purchases and are supplemented by the library's regular acquisition records or automated acquisitions control system.

2.3 Document Delivery

(a) Document Suppliers' Services

FEDLINK document delivery suppliers acquire copies of published or unpublished materials in print or electronic format in response to your request for a specific item. They can provide individual magazine or journal articles, reports, documents, dissertations, theses, and other types of materials. They accept orders electronically, by fax, and by phone. Many firms specialize in same-day rush delivery. FEDLINK BOAs require that document suppliers follow U.S. Copyright law requirements when they provide materials to you.

Under LC/FEDLINK BOAs document delivery suppliers do not provide personnel services with hourly fees—such as research or translating. Nor are document suppliers a source for regular interlibrary loan.

(b) Competition Requirements

Document delivery orders over $25,000 need a synopsis in the CBD.

(c) Commercial Deposit Accounts

With commercial customers, document suppliers frequently operate on a "deposit account" system, where funds are transferred in advance to the supplier and orders are deducted from the amount on deposit until funds are exhausted. FEDLINK transfer pay accounts are not deposit accounts with vendors. Your funds are not prepaid to the vendors; the vendors submit regular invoices for providing the documents you order. If you plan to use document delivery services under the direct pay option, be advised that prepaying into a vendor deposit account does not alter the period of availability of your appropriated funds. Document delivery items must be ordered in the fiscal year the funds are available for obligation.

2.4 Microfilm Acquisitions

(a) Microform Suppliers' Services

LC/FEDLINK microform acquisitions BOAs are for purchasing materials commercially published in microfilm or microfiche format. These typically include newspapers or other periodicals on microfilm, dissertations or theses, reports, or catalogs on fiche. FEDLINK's agreements do not cover services to film or create fiche items in your library or agency collections.

(b) Competition Requirements

Microform orders over $25,000 need a synopsis in the CBD. Often, a microform publisher is a unique source of supply for the particular title required.

(c) Back Orders

One microform industry practice can be of concern to government buyers. It is common for a microform supplier to accept orders for a highly specialized major microform publication, and wait to produce the microform until he has received enough orders to make the production run viable. Your order may be needed to reach the microform publisher's quota for production, and if your order is not in the queue, there will not be enough copies produced to supply your library with one. But your order may wait in the queue for quite some time before the vendor produces and ships the item.

If you have placed a microform order and the item remains unproduced or on back order status for a significant time, please contact the FEDLINK Vendor Services Coordinator, (202) 707-4960. Particularly if your order has not been delivered six months into the following fiscal year, you should consider a replacement order for the title in question.

2.5 Serials Subscription Agents

Best practices in libraries include the use of a serials subscription agent. The subscription agent consolidates your orders and renewals, making prepayments on your behalf to publishers and introducing efficiencies in the publishing and purchasing processes. Subscription agents' expertise in communicating with publishers' facilitates the process for ordering, claiming, and managing address changes for publishers and ship-to locations. Subscription agents also play a critical role in estimating and communicating price projections and assisting librarians in budgeting for subscriptions. Library staff time is thereby freed to concentrate on the integration of journals into the library collection and service to the users of journal issues. Subscription agents also offer services to supplement these activities, including providing electronic data for local use in library systems and even providing check-in and routing assistance. As more publishing takes place electronically, subscription agents are placed to assist libraries in the transition to licensing and servicing collections of electronic materials. Current FEDLINK agreements with subscription agents cover serials in all formats, including electronic.

Because journal subscriptions represent a major part of the collections and expenditures of federal libraries, FEDLINK has a special program to observe federal acquisitions requirements while helping libraries find the best value in subscription services. Through a competitive procurement with a base year of FY99, FEDLINK established BOAs with four serials subscription agents. The BOAs have four additional one-year options.

FEDLINK's current four agents can provide basic subscription services for common magazines, periodicals and newspapers, and for highly specialized journals and other periodically published documents. (Librarians call all these publications collectively "serials.") The LC/FEDLINK Serials BOAs provide services geared toward the needs of federal libraries. The four serials vendors and BOAs are:

  1. American Overseas Book Company (OB) 99CLFB71003
  2. Blackwell's Information Services (RE) 99CLFB71004
  3. EBSCO Subscription Services (EB) 99CLFB71001
  4. The FAXON Company (FX) 99CLFB71002

(a) Serials Agents' Services

FEDLINK BOAs require all four vendors to provide basic serials subscription services—placing new and renewal orders with publishers, prepaying publishers, claiming missing issues, providing serials price and publication information, and producing management reports. The prices for your subscriptions and the vendor's service fee for acquiring the titles are established through a request for quotation (RFQ) on your individual subscription list.

Some agents can provide additional serials management services, such as serials check-in and processing, electronic data exchange with libraries' local systems, and other automated support of local serials data management. Optional billing and invoicing arrangements are possible, within a basic structure necessary for FEDLINK transfer pay customers.

(b) Competition Requirements

Individual agency requirements for subscription service vary widely, based on the agency's particular title/publisher list, number of shipping/consignee addresses, and additional technical and automated serials control requirements. Within the basic framework of the LC/FEDLINK BOAs, you must determine which of the four vendors is best suited to your agency's needs by competing your individual order. By competing, the government secures the best technical service for your agency at the best price. The average vendor service fee for transfer pay customers who competed their requirements in FY2000 was .81 percent.

The competition process is described below and explained in full in Part VI, Serials Subscription Services, of this handbook.

(c) Renewing a Prior Competition

If you are a transfer pay customer and LC/C&L competed your serials requirement for you under the current BOAs (i.e., FY2000 or later), you may renew with your incumbent vendor if you choose. You may modify your title list for the coming year, but if your changes are significant enough to alter the character of your order (e.g., so that the subscription agent cannot offer the same service fee percent), you may have to recompete among vendors. Recompeting gives all of the vendors an opportunity to fulfill your new requirements. Note that using the firm-fixed pricing option means you will have to recompete your requirements each year.

If you are a direct pay customer, and your contracting officer competed your serials order for you under a current LC/FEDLINK BOA (i.e., FY2000 or later), check with your local contracting officer for your status for this year. If your competition included an option to renew, you may be able to stay with your incumbent vendor without recompeting. If you wish to change from transfer pay to direct pay or vice versa for the coming year it will be necessary to recompete.

All FEDLINK serials requirements, both transfer and direct, will need to be competed for FY2000.

(d) Transfer Pay Competition

—Orders Over $100,000

If you are a new transfer pay customer (or one who wants to compete again for the current year) with a serials order greater than $25,000, LC/C&L will issue an RFQ for you to the four vendors. For the RFQ you must supply a reliable title list that includes ISSNs (international standard serial number) and subscription periods, ship-to information, and a description of any technical requirements you have for optional services such as check-in or union listing. You provide this information on the Intent to Complete Serials Subscriptions form you submit when you register for FEDLINK.

You may select a vendor based solely on the vendor's service fee or based on a combination of technical and cost factors. The contracting office or the contracting officer's technical representative can help you analyze your best approach, based on your requirements. See the list of contacts at the back of this handbook.

—Orders $100,000 and Under

For transfer pay serials orders of $25,000 and under, you may conduct your own technical/price comparisons among the four vendors and select one. You may select a vendor based solely on the vendor's service fee or on a combination of technical and cost factors. You will need to submit a Serials Selection Form with your signed IAG (or whenever you have finished your comparison and selection). On the form you explain your reasons for choosing your vendor. After reviewing your selection form, LC/C&L will issue a delivery order for you. If you prefer, (especially if your order is between $2,500 and $25,000), LC/C&L will oversee competition for you. For transfer pay procurements above $25,000, LC/C&L must advertise your requirement in the Commerce Business Daily. Submit an Intent to Compete Serials Subscriptions form to have LC/C&L start your competition. The Serials Selection Form and the Intent to Compete Serials Subscriptions form are included in the Forms section of this handbook.

(e) Direct Pay Competition

If you are a direct pay customer, LC/C&L will authorize your serials purchase order based on a certification from your contracting officer that competition requirements for the order have been satisfied. Both transfer pay and direct pay customers may select a vendor based solely on the vendor's service fee or based on a combination of technical and cost factors. Document your competition using the Serials Selection Form in the Forms section.

(f) Pricing

Whatever the size of your order, and whether you are a transfer pay or direct pay customer, you must decide how to have the serials subscription agent price your order. This is an important decision.

—Standard Pricing

The standard pricing terms are estimated title prices and a firm-fixed vendor percentage service fee. The price billed for each title is the publisher's list price on the day your agent places the order. For some titles, publishers later will charge an additional amount for supplemental pages or special issues; your serials agent will pass these supplemental charges on to you.

—Firm-Fixed Pricing

The other option is firm-fixed pricing where fixed titles are ordered with fixed title prices and a fixed service fee. If you choose firm-fixed pricing, you will not be able to make any changes to your title list after your competition. Also, you will not be able to renew with your vendor automatically for the next year, but will have to conduct a new competition for next year's exact list of subscription titles.

(g) Serials Industry Deadlines

If you are going to compete a serials order, you must begin in spring or summer. The industry's time frame for placing serials subscription orders is very tight. Your subscription agent must receive your final subscription list in October to be able to place calendar year renewal orders (subscriptions that start in January) with publishers by November. If your competition is late, your subscription orders are likely to be late, and your subscriptions that start in January will lapse. This leads to costly and time-consuming efforts to reestablish service and replace missing issues. If at all possible, request funding and plan your serials services so that subscriptions which begin in January of the coming year are ordered late in the previous fiscal year. Prepayment of subscriptions was legalized by Congress early in the 20th century; the current authorization is 31 USC §3324(d)(2), with clarification made by the Comptroller General (e.g., Comp.Gen. 326 (1943), B37388, B-256692) and many agency acquisition regulations.

Because serials industry deadlines are uncomfortably close to the beginning of the federal fiscal year and the annual establishment of your IAG, FEDLINK places a priority on processing IAGs that include serials services. To avoid breaks in your serials services, please register for FEDLINK and finalize your serials competition without delay.

(h) Register Without Delay—Set Up Temporary Serials Account

Because you do not want to delay renewal of your online, OCLC, books, or other services, you should register for your FEDLINK services even if your serials procurement is not complete. Use the temporary service ID "SZ" for Serials Service to register while your transfer pay or direct pay serials competition is still pending.

When your competition is complete, FEDLINK will amend your IAG to change from the temporary SZ service to the vendor you selected. If LC/C&L conducted your competition for you, the FEDLINK contracting officer will inform FEDLINK Fiscal Operations when your vendor has been selected so that the Fiscal IAG Team can generate an IAG amendment for you. If you conduct your competition locally (as a direct pay customer or a transfer pay customer with an order under $25,000), you should submit an IAG amendment request and your Serials Selection Form when you are finished with your competition.

(i) For Help with Your Competition

FEDLINK has also included a Serials Subscription Services section to this handbook that includes a copy of the statement of work from the serials BOAs and gives in-depth guidance on preparing serials orders for competition—on assembling title lists and assessing special technical requirements, conducting competition, and evaluating offers. LC/FEDLINK contracting officers and FEDLINK network librarians have worked closely with members on hundreds of serials competitions over the past five years. They are available to help both transfer pay and direct pay customers. If you are beginning your competition, please consult this Appendix.

3. Library Support and Education Services

FEDLINK's information retrieval and publications acquisitions BOAs help you build your federal library collection, manage its resources, and provide quality reference user services. FEDLINK's library support BOAs help you enhance behind-the-scenes operations in your library or information center by automating and standardizing many technical process—esespecially cataloging, classification, circulation, and interlibrary loan.

Descriptions of vendors are available at the FLICC/FEDLINK Web site at http://lcweb.loc.gov/flicc/mmcontr.html.

3.1 Bibliographic Utilities--OCLC and RLN

Your agency library or information center may become a member of a national bibliographic utility and share its member-created database of original bibliographic records. Full-time catalogers in the Library of Congress and other libraries have created original cataloging records for books and other materials your library may own. You can use their records, that conform to national standards, to update the catalog of your collection quickly and efficiently. Some libraries become members of more than one utility by loading records automatically from one system to another.

The utilities' databases are also a "union catalog" of library collections, meaning they reflect which libraries own what materials. Thus, they are an international pool of data that you can use for interlibrary loan and other resource sharing and cooperative development activities. FEDLINK's two bibliographic utilities are:

  • OCLC, the Online Computer Library Center, which serves all types of libraries nationwide and internationally; and for which FEDLINK is the official support and service network for federal libraries; and
  • RLIN, the Research Libraries Information Network, whose members are primarily large academic, research libraries, museum and art libraries.

The bibliographic utilities are unique among FEDLINK services in that their databases are not "read-only"; you actually add records to the utility's system. Therefore, before you begin using a bibliographic utility, it is necessary to "profile" your library to establish parameters for the cataloging, classification, and interlibrary loan work you will perform on the system. FEDLINK Network Operations (FNO) staff will guide new OCLC members through the profiling process and submit the profile to OCLC. RLIN works directly with member libraries.

If you are considering joining a bibliographic utility, please contact a FEDLINK network librarian at (202) 707-4848 for assistance, or email us at [email protected]. You should also contact FNO if you are canceling service with your utility, so the work can begin to close down your membership, change your interlibrary loan status, and disconnect your telecommunications links, as necessary. You must allow 60 days to deactivate a library on OCLC or change network affiliation; RLIN has comparable requirements.

As the formal OCLC service network for federal libraries, FEDLINK has an extensive role in support and training of member libraries. The following material provides the basic information you need to know about establishing your OCLC membership and using the system through FEDLINK.

(a) OCLC Membership Options

OCLC, Online Computer Library Center, Inc., is a not-for-profit membership organization. Full OCLC member institutions are required to complete current cataloging on OCLC, in order to receive reduced rates. Full (i.e., "general") membership allows a library to enter new catalog records into the OCLC union database of bibliographic records and library holdings, use the records created by other members, and perform interlibrary loan and reference activity on the OCLC system. Higher rates or lesser access are available under other institutional membership categories, for libraries that do not contribute cataloging and holdings information to the database. The OCLC membership categories are: general member online, general member tape load, partial user, selective user, reference-only user, and OCLC-Europe user. General members who contribute cataloging records to the system pay the best prices.

(b) Joining OCLC

To use OCLC services you must join OCLC. Federal libraries may join OCLC via FEDLINK by indicating an OCLC membership category on the Registration Form and working with the FEDLINK Network Operations OCLC team to complete an OCLC profile. The OCLC profile establishes your library's identity in the OCLC system, by assigning a unique three-letter symbol which will be used in cataloging, ILL and billing, and identifying:

  • which cataloging and classification systems your library will use online;
  • whether or not you will receive catalog cards and, if so, how they should be formatted;
  • how you will access the system;
  • what your systems authorization levels and passwords will be; and
  • whether you will participate in interlibrary loan and any ILL groups, e.g. the Federal Libraries and Information Centers group (symbol "FEDL") or Libraries Very Interested in Sharing (LVIS).

Documentation will be provided and OCLC software is free. The FEDLINK FNO OCLC team will assist you in the profiling process and advise you on cost-effective telecommunications methods, software use, and training options. Contact the team for assistance with choosing a membership category and profiling your library at (202) 707-4800 or send email to [email protected]. More information about costs, budgeting, and profiling are also available on the FLICC/FEDLINK Web site under OCLC Network Services.

(c) Canceling OCLC Service

Canceling OCLC Services via FEDLINK requires at least 60 days. Although LC/FEDLINK delivery orders for OCLC service automatically expire at the end of each fiscal year, as an official OCLC Network, FEDLINK must issue a formal notification to OCLC to deactivate your OCLC membership profile. This is the only way to effectively cancel ongoing charges when your library leaves OCLC.

If your library is closing or merging with another library, or if you must cancel your OCLC membership for other reasons, you must contact FEDLINK Network Operations early to ensure that your service is shut down efficiently. Your profile must be deactivated, your bibliographic holdings may need to be updated or deleted from the OCLC database, your interlibrary lending status must be changed, your ongoing automatic OCLC system access charges must be stopped, and OCLC must have time to notify 3rd party telecommunications providers to stop service.

A minimum of 60 days is required before all changes can be stopped; you must plan and budget accordingly. The same 60 days notice is required if you intend to procure OCLC via another network or Independent membership. To date, only the state-supported networks INCOLSA (in Indiana) and ILLINET (in Illinois) provide OCLC services at a lower cost than FEDLINK. You may obtain quotes from OCLC directly (for "OCLC Independent" status) or from other networks.

(d) Renewing OCLC Service

To follow federal acquisitions requirements and keep from violating the Anti-Deficiency Act, FEDLINK must closely monitor authorization of funds in your OCLC account. Renewal of service must be completed in a timely manner each fiscal year, and accounts must be funded at adequate levels throughout the year. If you do not fund your OCLC activities but continue to incurr charges, FEDLINK will take action to block your access to the system. FEDLINK will notify you if such action becomes necessary. Prior to the beginning of each fiscal year, FEDLINK places announcements in FEDLINK Technical Notes, OCLC statements, listservs and on the FEDLINK Web site, notifying members of deadlines for completing the IAG process for OCLC services. Please observe these deadlines. Also note new procedures described in Section IV, 3.3, Deficit Accounts. Delinquent debts over 180 days old will be transferred to the Department of the Treasury for collection.

(e) FEDLINK OCLC Team Communications

FNO's OCLC team publishes a monthly column in FEDLINK Technical Notes and operates a listserv, oclcfed. At least one person in each FEDLINK OCLC member library should subscribe to oclcfed, to ensure that communications from FEDLINK are received in a timely manner. Subjects will cover all aspects of OCLC service. To subscribe, send the message

"subscribe oclcfed <yourfirstname>
<yourlastname>"
to the address
[email protected]

You must confirm your subscription within 48 hours; otherwise you will need to restart the subscribe command. You may unsubscribe with the command "SIGNOFF OCLCFED" sent to [email protected].

You may send requests for assistance with orders, simple requests to change or cancel services, profile change requests, and other communications and questions to FEDLINK FNO at [email protected].

(f) OCLC Usage Data Online on ALIX-FS

FEDLINK posts a machine-readable version of your monthly OCLC usage detail on the FLICC/FEDLINK Web site. As with your online account balances and statement detail data, you are the only one with access to your ALIX-FS OCLC usage data. This gives you regular access to the line-item detail from your OCLC invoices in machine-readable form, making it practical to conduct detailed analysis of your OCLC activity with a spreadsheet or database program. Using the data regularly, you will be able to make better use of the OCLC system by tracking your overall OCLC usage patterns, reviewing the activity of subordinate library branches, analyzing current costs and projecting alternatives, and compiling statistics that illustrate your library's services and benefits to your agency.

—Online Files Show All OCLC Activity

The files that FEDLINK posts to ALIX-FS each month contain the same data shown on the OCLC detail sheets attached to your monthly OCLC statements. They cover all your monthly activity and charges for all of the three-character OCLC symbols paid from your account. The files include data on all areas of OCLC activity including searching, cataloging, ILL borrowing and lending, EPIC and FirstSearch activity, telecommunications, documentation, etc. FEDLINK will continue to attach OCLC's printed detail reports to your monthly statements. If you use the OCLC data file regularly, you should be sure to compare it to the OCLC print report. As always, you should confirm that your statement accurately reflects your system usage.

—You Can Import the OCLC Data

The OCLC usage files are composed of comma-quote-delimited ASCII text that can easily be imported into spreadsheet programs such as Lotus 123, Quattro Pro, or Excel or database programs such as dBase or Paradox. For each OCLC product code/line item you used during the month, the data includes the following fields: FEDLINK ID, OCLC symbol, year, month, FEDLINK sequence number, OCLC product code, product description, units, unit price, and extended price. To help you interpret the OCLC product codes and brief item descriptions, a machine-readable version of OCLC's complete Descriptive Product Code List, which gives a narrative description of each OCLC line item, is also posted on ALIX-FS. This document is also helpful for interpreting your monthly statements and budgeting for the coming year.

—Use FEDLINK Category Fields

To help you manipulate and analyze the data, FEDLINK adds a "category of activity" field to each item in the usage file. This field marks items associated with the same OCLC functional activity with a group identifier tag: CATaloging, RESource sharing, REFerence services, TELecommunications, etc. Using this category field, you can sort together all of the various product codes associated with, for example, cataloging—searching, display holdings, first-time-use, updates, credits, cards, tapeloads, etc. Using the sequence number field FEDLINK adds for each line item, you can resort the data to match the printed OCLC detail sheets attached to your monthly OCLC account statements.

—To Access ALIX-FS and Download Files

The OCLC data is in member-specific files which you can download from the ALIX-FS system, accessible through the FLICC/FEDLINK Web site: http://lcweb.loc.gov/flicc. As with ALIX-FS account balance information, OCLC usage files are password-protected. For more information on accessing ALIX-FS through the FLICC Web site, see Section IV, Subsection 6. Call the FEDLINK Fiscal Hotline if you have forgotten your ALIX-FS ID or password.

—OCLC Analytical Reports

In addition to data that you may download and manipulate locally for analysis, ALIX-FS also has basic reports in HTML format that provide analysis of your monthly OCLC expenditures by category: cataloging, resource sharing/ILL, reference, telecommunications, documentation, and administrative. There are two reports: summary and detail. The summary report shows the percentage of your total monthly expenditures associated with each category. The detail report lists all your line items in each category in descending order by total charge.

The summary report totals usage by category and provides a cost per item processed in each category, with and without administrative overhead factored in. For example, in the category labeled RES, for "resource sharing," you may see the total cost per ILL request: searches, display holdings, ILL request produces, and loan credits are totaled and averaged. You may see the same information with a percent of telecommunications, documentation and any other administrative overhead costs included. Totals for the month are also displayed, in each category and as an overall monthly total. Numbers of transactions include searches, produces, updates, exports, etc. The percentage of cost attributable to telecommunications per item cataloged/requested via ILL are shown, as are search to produce ratios.

Detail reports provide the data from which the summaries are composed. In them, you may see how many searches were done in each month in cataloging and in ILL, how many holding displays were executed, how many records exported, how many cataloging records had holdings set ("first time use"), etc.

FEDLINK's goal is to have OCLC data posted by the middle of the month following the activity reported.

—Use the Data to Track Operations, Analyze Options, and Improve Service

FEDLINK provides the data to encourage library managers to monitor cost effectiveness and efficiency in use of OCLC. Cost per item cataloged and ILL transaction are key measures.

  • High numbers of searches per item cataloged or ILL request produce may relate to the type of items cataloged or requested and to the way you use the system for pre-order acquisitions searching. However, the usage analysis reports might suggest that you might review your search techniques to see if you are using the most effective search strategies. For example, some reference searching may be more effectively conducted in FirstSearch than in the cataloging system, because FirstSearch allows holdings to be displayed and subject headings to be used to find related records.
  • You should review the types of searching you are using: numeric and derived searches cost less than scan title and keyword searches.
  • Library managers should analyze telecommunications costs: the analytical summary report will display what percent of your cataloging and ILL costs can be attributed to telecommunications. A high percentage suggests a cheaper telecom method should be sought, or staff habits reviewed to ensure proper logoff routines.
  • Further analysis of detailed data imported and studied locally can be used to make budget projections; monitor a library contractor's performance; and assess your compliance with OCLC membership responsibilities by comparing acquisitions and cataloging statistics.

(g) Fiscal Year Deadlines for OCLC Accounts and Orders

September 30: Register for services

November 30: Signed IAGs must be returned.

June 30: Authorizations for Asynchronous Dial Access must be canceled to avoid annual authorization fee.

August 1: Intention to cancel OCLC membership via FEDLINK must be reported in writing to FNO OCLC team (email: [email protected] or FAX: (202) 707-4873). Include information about the reason for your change in membership status: (a) library being closed, (b) OCLC use ceasing but library will remain in operation, (c) consolidating libraries or (d) changing network affiliation. Consolidating existing symbols under one FEDLINK ID and IAG may be accomplished at the time of registration by memo, indicating which symbols are to be covered under the remaining FEDLINK ID/IAG.

August 1: Local Database Creation orders must be processed by the FNO OCLC team. FEDLINK recommends that you communicate your intent to request an LDC (an extraction of your archival records from OCLC) much earlier, to ensure appropriate scheduling at OCLC.

September 15: FirstSearch orders faxed after this date must have receipt confirmed by the FNO OCLC team, to ensure processing by the close of the fiscal year and appropriate billing.

DO NOT MAIL orders for services to FEDLINK, without prior arrangement. Fax is preferred.

3.2 Copyright Clearance Center Services

In the legislative history to the Copyright Act of 1976, Congress suggested that copyright owners and users of copyrighted materials develop an efficient mechanism for dealing with the requirement that all uses of copyrighted materials (including photocopies) ordinarily require permission from the copyright owners. Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC), a not-for-profit corporation, was formed for this purpose.

In exchange for payment of an annual license fee, CCC authorizes your agency patrons to make unlimited photocopies, for the internal purposes of your organization, from any of the 1.75 million works controlled by the 9,000 publishers who participate in CCC. CCC makes the necessary royalty payments to the individual rights holders for you. The license also provides protection from litigation by participating publishers.

The annual license fee is determined by multiplying a cost factor for your agency by the total number of professional and administrative employees in your organization. CCC's Annual Authorizations Service Repertory License Agreement has been approved by the LC Office of General Counsel.

The decision about whether your agency needs to purchase a CCC photocopying license rests solely with your agency. There are at least two questions that are relevant to your decision. First, are the publications that would be covered by the license the publications your patrons use? Second, does the volume and scope of your patrons' photocopying from those works exceed the boundaries of the doctine of fair use as it applies to copyrighted works?

If you are considering signing up for the CCC service, please read the license included in this Handbook. You may call FEDLINK or the CCC if you have questions about the license's terms.

(a) Key Features of the License

—Works You Can Photocopy

The rights holders whose works are covered include commercial publishers, associations and societies, university presses, and other general and specialty publishers. Some of the publishers of interest to FEDLINK members would include:

  • American Chemical Society
  • American Medical Association
  • American Institute of Physics
  • Army Times Publishing Company
  • Blackwell Science Ltd.
  • Elsevier Sciences
  • Excerpta Medica, Inc.
  • IEEE Standards
  • IHS Publications
  • MacMillan Publishers, Ltd.
  • Pergamon Press
  • Reed Publishing
  • Springer-Verlag New York, Inc.
  • Thompson Publishing Group, Inc.
  • Warren, Gorham & Lamont
  • Washington Post
  • Ziff-Davis Publishing Co.

You can find out whether individual publishers or titles are included in the repertory by searching CCC's Web site (http://www.copyright.com).

—Limits on Photocopying

The license does not provide carte blanche for photocopying for interlibrary loan activities or photocopying for users outside your organization. Also, obviously, works from publishers who are not registered with CCC are not covered by the license. If you decide to take a license, you should let your agency patrons know which of the titles they use are covered, and also identify for them any significant titles that are not covered.

—Participating in a Survey

To figure out how to divide up the license fees among the publishers, periodically the CCC performs a statistical analysis of users' copying. Every other year, CCC users participate in a survey of the actual photocopying done at selected sites. Based on the aggregate information from these surveys the CCC makes appropriate royalty payments to publishers. User agencies will need to participate in the survey, subject to appropriate security and confidentiality arrangements needed to protect the user agencies.

—Publishers Waive Claims

For renewing licensees, the rights holders agree to waive all their unasserted prior claims for copyright infringement of the works covered by the license.

(b) The Cost of the License

The royalty fee for the license is calculated as a per-head charge for each professional or administrative employee in your organization. See Section H.6 of the CCC license for a description of the individuals who should be counted. As a rule of thumb, staff in positions GS-9 level and above (and their equivalents in other pay scales) should be included. CCC has established four fee levels for different types of government agencies that parallel the fees paid by CCC licensed organizations in the commercial sector.

Your agency's royalty fee equals the number of professional/administrative employees times your agency's fee level. To this amount the CCC adds a one-time general and administrative (G&A) charge of 25%; when you renew the license after the first year, there is no supplemental G&A charge. Thus, for example, a Department of Energy organization with 2,000 professional/administrative staff would pay $28,000 ($14 * 2,000) plus $7,000 for a total of $35,000 for the first year of the license.

(c) How to Establish a CCC Account

—You Add CR to Your IAG

The CCC can only be acquired through FEDLINK as a transfer pay service. The Service ID is CR. You may include CR service on your annual Registration Form, or add it later in the year as you would any other service.

—You Complete Your Part of the License Agreement

Fill in the license agreement included in the Appendix to this Handbook and have your contracting officer or other authorized individual sign it. Attach the license to your Registration Form or IAG amendment request. You need to fill in the following blanks:

  • Agency: Please provide the name of the agency as it appears in FEDLINK records.

  • FEDLINK ID: Provide your FEDLINK ID.

  • Number of Employees: Figure the number of professional and administrative employees in your organization. See Section H.6 of the Agreement for CCC's description of which individuals should be counted. Basically, include staff in positions GS-9 level and above (or the equivalent).

  • Agency Fee Category: After talking with the CCC contact person listed below, identify which of the four fee levels is the one for your agency.

  • Royalty: Multiply your number of covered employees by your agency fee.

  • General and Administrative Charge: Multiply the royalty by 25%.

  • Total License Fee: Add the royalty and the G&A charge together.

  • User: Provide your agency's mailing address.

  • By/Dated: Have your contracting officer or other authorized individual sign and date the license and supply the individual's name and title.

—LC/C&L Issues Your Delivery Order

When your IAG transaction is complete, LC/C&L will issue a delivery order to CCC with your license agreement attached to it.

—CCC Signs the License

When it receives your delivery order, CCC will fill in the effective date on the license agreement, sign it, and send one copy of the completed license to you and one to FEDLINK.

(d) For More Information

CCC's contact for FEDLINK members is Jay Lingerman, (978) 750-8400 x2243; [email protected]. CCC's Web site is at http://www.copyright.com. To talk with FEDLINK about the CCC license, contact FNO at (202) 707-4800.

 

CCC Fee Tiers

The four fee tiers are:*

 
Tier 1—$47.00
Health and Human Services, Justice
 
Tier 2—$19.50

Agriculture, Education, EPA, NASA, Securities and Exchange Commission, State, Treasury

 
Tier 3—$15.61
Energy
 
Tier 4—$8.05

Other Departments and Independent Agencies, such as: Commerce, Defense, FDIC, GSA, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, LC, OPM, Transportation, TVA, Veterans Affairs

 
*Prices are good through 12/1/2000 and are per professional/administrative employee.

 

3.3 FLICC/FEDLINK Educational Services

FLICC/FEDLINK provides professional development opportunities and hands-on skills training to employees of federal agencies on a reimbursable basis under the Government Employees Training Act, 5 U.S.C. §§ 4101-4118. Events and classes are announced regularly in the FEDLINK Technical Notes newsletter, the FLICC Web Site, the FLICC Internet listserv fedlib, through individual meeting announcements, and in the FLICC/FEDLINK Education Catalog.

You may pay for educational services by setting up a FLICC/FEDLINK Training (FT) account under your IAG or by using billable standard government training forms (e.g., SF 182, DD 1556). The FLICC Publications and Education office and FEDLINK Network Operations manage FLICC/FEDLINK educational services. You may contact them at (202) 707-4800 for more information about specific course offerings, pricing, schedules, and policies.

(a) The FLICC/FEDLINK Training (FT) Account

If your staff attends FLICC programs and FEDLINK classes often, setting up an FT account is the most efficient way to pay for their attendance. To have FEDLINK conduct training onsite at your facilities, where course fees, travel and expenses will be billed to your agency, an FT account is required. Beginning in FY2000, members who wish training from a participating OCLC library network will need to establish an account for those networks (see section 3.3d). The FT account is only used to pay for FLICC/FEDLINK sponsored training; you may not use the FT account to pay for training offered by FEDLINK vendors. Training is included in most vendors' BOAs and may be charged directly to your account with the vendor.

The FT account works like a regular transfer pay service account:

  1. You register and sign an IAG that includes the FT service;
  2. You pay the regular transfer pay fee on your service dollars;
  3. FLICC/FEDLINK submits invoices to FFO for reimbursement from your account;
  4. FFO sends you an FT account statement with copies of paid FLICC/FEDLINK invoices.

If you will be paying for training for staff from subordinate offices or other libraries from your account, please provide a list of the units whose staff your account will cover, with the units' three-character OCLC symbols, where appropriate.

(b) Standard Government Training Forms

If you attend FLICC/FEDLINK events infrequently, you may choose to register for class and pay your training fees with an official government training form. You may use the 10-part standard training form (SF182 Request, Authorization, Agreement and Certification of Training), the Department of Defense DD1556, or another official, billable government form. The form must identify FLICC/FEDLINK as your interagency training source and provide a billable funds citation for the announced class fee plus the administrative fee. Thus, a regular FEDLINK $100 full-day class will be $107.75 when you register and pay with a training form and a $60 half-day class will be $64.65. This way, all administrative processing costs are covered and the total training charges are the same whether the customer pays by FT transfer account or training form.

You may also use a training form if your agency requires one, to credit your personnel file for the training, for example. If you have an FT account but need to submit a training form, make sure the form clearly indicates that charges are to be billed to your FT account and not directly to your agency. Instead of providing a fund citation and billing address on the form, indicate "IAG FT Account" as the fund to be charged and "FEDLINK Fiscal Operations" as the invoice address.

(c) OCLC Pacific and OCLC/WLN Service Center Training Opportunities

FEDLINK has a unique training agreement with OCLC/OCLC Pacific and WLN. OCLC, doing business as OCLC Pacific or OCLC/WLN, offers training to FEDLINK/OCLC members in the following states: Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, California, Oregon, and Washington.

Both offer the following training options:

  • Regional OCLC workshops;
  • Customized OCLC Training at your library; and
  • Annual subscription to OCLC Pacific publications.

This training is offered under the FEDLINK OCLC BOA (#96CLFB73001) and applies only the terms and conditions of this modification to the OCLC BOA and not to terms and conditions of training furnished by FLICC/FEDLINK through the FNO Training Program (OCLC and Internet), the FLICC Events Program, or separate agreements with other OCLC Networks.

—Paying For OCLC Pacific/WLN Training

Use of either organizations' training services is contingent upon payment through the member's FEDLINK OCLC account only (Service ID: OC). Other forms of payment will not be accepted, such as the FEDLINK Training account (Service ID: FT) or standard government agency training forms (such as a DD1556 or SF 182). OCLC Pacific has no means for accepting payment other than through the FEDLINK member's OCLC account. Charges will appear on members' OCLC invoices.

To avoid personal liabilities for unauthorized use of funds, make sure you obtain authorization to take and pay for this training through the OCLC account, in advance of each registration. Trainees are personally responsible for obtaining all necessary authorizations to use OCLC Pacific training services. If your OCLC services are centrally funded, your OCLC accounts officer must authorize your use of the account for training and the charges you will incur.

For assistance or additional information about your FEDLINK funding or authorization to register for OCLC Pacific training, please call FEDLINK (202) 707-4848 or send an email to: [email protected].

—Receiving Announcements of Training

FEDLINK members in affected states have been added to mailing lists to receive information training, workshop calendars, announcements of regional workshops, and other training information.

—Registering for OCLC Pacific Training

Space will be limited; so OCLC Pacific advises registration at least six weeks in advance of scheduled training. Send registration requests to FEDLINK ATTN: FNO Training Office. Telephone registrations cannot be accepted by FEDLINK or OCLC Pacific.

—Confirming or Canceling Your Registration

OCLC Pacific will confirm your registration via return mail. Your request will be considered along with those from OCLC Pacific members, on a first come, first served basis. Please do not consider yourself registered until you receive a confirmation from OCLC Pacific.

To change or cancel a confirmed registration, contact OCLC Pacific at (800) 854-5753. Cancellations must be received at least 48 hours prior to the class to avoid charges to the agency.

(d) Training from Participating OCLC Regional Library Networks

FEDLINK member libraries that wish to obtain OCLC, Internet and other training from regional library networks (e.g., Capcon) and want FEDLINK to pay their invoices for services rendered, must set up a separate account for each applicable participating network. See the library support services section of the list of current vendors to find the two letter identification code for the network(s) you intend to utilize. Determine the appropriate level of funding for the year and then register with FEDLINK in the same manner as for its other vendor services. When the resulting interagency agreement is completed, the Library of Congress will issue a deliver order to the network indicating that you have established an account for their services. The network will know how much money you have available and should provide training up to that level. Registration for training will be a direct communication between the library and the network. The networks will invoice FEDLINK which will make payment, debit the library's account, and provide monthly statements to the library.

(e) Contractor Staff Attendance

Agencies that have authorized their contractor staff to attend government training may send contractors to FLICC/FEDLINK fee-based classes and events and pay for their attendance using federal funds, either by charging the FT account on the agency's IAG with FEDLINK or by issuing a billable government training form for the contractor student. The contractor would not pay FLICC/FEDLINK directly. Any reimbursement from the contractor to the agency would be based on the terms of the contract between the company and the agency, and would not involve FLICC/FEDLINK.

On the other hand, contractors that are authorized to use federal sources of supply may establish a Contract Use Agreement (CUAG) with LC/FEDLINK in the companys' own name, funded with company funds. A contractor with a valid CUAG may establish an FT account, send employees working under the relevant government contract to FLICC/FEDLINK classes and events, and charge their attendance to the FT account. See the complete discussion of qualification requirements and procedures for CUAGs in Part I of this Handbook.

In no case, however, can FLICC/FEDLINK accept and retain payment directly from contractors or from private citizens.

3.4 ILL Fee Payment Services

Federal libraries need an efficient way to pay ILL fees. Lending institutions often charge nominal fees to recover their photocopying or other loan processing costs and will not loan materials unless the borrowing institution can pay the fee. Without petty cash accounts or formal ILL purchase orders, federal libraries usually have no cost-effective formal payment mechanism. Because it is critical that the resources of the libraries that charge for ILL continue to be available to the government, many federal libraries have developed alternative, but not necessarily effective or efficient, ways to be able to pay borrowing fees. Even in agencies with a formal payment process, it commonly costs the government far more to process and pay each small ILL invoice than the amount of the ILL fee itself.

FEDLINK offers two services that provide efficient methods for libraries to pay the nominal fees that lending institutions often charge to recover their photocopying or other loan processing costs. Under one service, a FEDLINK contractor consolidates the ILL invoices you receive and pays the institutions that lent you materials. The contractor then bills an account your agency sets up at FEDLINK for reimbursement for your ILL charges plus a processing fee. This service only covers payments to lenders, not collection from libraries that borrow from you.

The second FEDLINK approach is OCLC's ILL Fee Management service. With the OCLC IFM service your library borrows and lends materials via the OCLC online ILL messaging system. That system tracks your activity and posts any borrowing or lending fees as debits or credits on your monthly OCLC bill. If your library is allowed to collect ILL fees, you may wish to consider the OCLC IFM service.

 

ILL Fee Payment Service Process

1. YOU register for an ILL Fee Payment Service transfer pay account under service ID "IN".

—Be sure to estimate enough service dollars to cover all borrowing activity AND enough funds to cover the contractor's per invoice service charge for payment processing.

—When you return your signed IAG, provide the name(s) of the invoice certifying official(s) who should be identified on your delivery order. This official must be able to certify that ILL materials were received and that an invoice should be paid from your FEDLINK account. The contractor is only authorized to pay invoices certified by this official.

2. LC/FEDLINK issues your delivery order and establishes a transfer pay account for you.

—YOU and the Contractor contact each other to start service.

3. YOU borrow library materials and keep an ILL log.

—Borrow materials as before, using the OCLC ILL subsystem, ALA ILL forms, or other common methods.

—The order date of the loan is the date you make the loan request with the lender.

—Verify that your ILL account balance is sufficient to cover loan charges and service fees before accepting any loan charges.

—Indicate your address as the billing address in all ILL requests; the lender should send the bill to you for review and certification, not directly to the contractor.

—Log your borrowing requests. A sample log form is provided which identifies key elements you should trackrequest date, lender, cost, running account balance, and loan receipt. You should keep track of your ILL activity, but you are not required to use this exact form.

—Receive materials and update your log.

5. YOU review and certify lender invoices for payment.

—Verify that the loan material was received.

—Verify that the invoice clearly identifies the lending institution and fiscal year of the loan, that the loan charge on the invoice is correct, and that your account balance is sufficient to cover both the loan charge and contractor's service fee.

—Certify the invoice for payment with the initials of certifying officer and date of certification.

6. YOU send certified invoices to the Contractor on a regular basis.

—Batch invoices, sorting by fiscal year, lender and date. Retain a copy of lender invoices for your records.

—Send invoices to the Contractor on a regular basis as determined by the volume of your loan activity.

—Send your certified invoices to the Contractor.

7. THE CONTRACTOR makes appropriate payments to lenders and submits invoices to FEDLINK for reimbursement from your account.

—Receives and reviews lender invoices for proper certification; pays lenders; updates account balances.

—Holds lender invoices for which you do not have sufficient funds to cover loan charge and service fee for 15 days. Notifies you that additional funds are needed to cover charges. Processes the on-hold invoices if your delivery order modifications are received within the hold period; otherwise returns the invoices to the lender.

—Invoices your FEDLINK IN account for reimbursement for paid lender invoices and for payment of service fees.

—Sends you a copy of the Contractor's invoice identifying payments to individual lenders.

8. FEDLINK processes the Contractor's invoices and produces statements.

—Generates your statements of account on approximately the 30th of the month and sends them to you with copies of your paid Contractor invoices.

9. YOU verify payment information and report discrepancies.

—Review the FEDLINK statement and attached copy of the Contractor's invoice for accuracy.

—Compare the Contractor's invoice with your ILL Log and copies of lender invoices.

—Report any payment problems to the FEDLINK Fiscal Hotline, (202) 707-4900, or fax a Problem Report Form, (202) 707-4999, for correction during the next statement period.

 

Because the ILL Fee Payment Service and the OCLC IFM service are somewhat different, FEDLINK will continue to maintain both as long as members have reason to prefer one of the options and as long as both services are cost effective.

ILL fee payment services are only offered under the transfer pay option. An ILL fee payment service is solely for the purpose of paying ILL charges and must not be used for miscellaneous or petty cash purchasing activity, nor in lieu of a regular account with a FEDLINK document delivery supplier.

(a) ILL Fee Payment Service (IN)

To use the FEDLINK ILL Payment Service contractor, you establish a transfer pay account with enough funds to pay lender invoices and cover the contractor's service charge. You borrow materials as you normally do, review the invoices the lenders send you, certify receipt, and forward those invoices to the contractor. The contractor pays the lenders and bills your FEDLINK account for reimbursement for ILL charges and for a per invoice processing fee. There are some volume discounts. The contractor sends you a report of the invoices it pays for you, and you receive a regular FEDLINK statement of account showing all payments to the contractor.

(b) OCLC ILL Fee Management (IFM) Service (OC)

In 1995 OCLC inaugurated its own ILL Fee Management Service. Using the OCLC service, your library borrows and lends materials via the OCLC online ILL messaging system. The ILL system tracks your activity and posts any borrowing or lending fees as debits or credits on your monthly OCLC bill. Lenders do not invoice you in paper and checks are not issued. If your library has the authority to collect and retain fees for the ILL services you provide, i.e., if you are allowed to charge borrowing fees, the OCLC IFM system is a method to handle your receipts. Consult your agency's counsel to determine whether you have the authority to collect and keep reimbursement from borrowers. Contact FEDLINK Network Operations, (202) 707-4848, for more information about OCLC IFM.

(c) Consider ILL Costs vs. Document Delivery Costs

Where cost is the primary consideration in choosing a source for materials, you should compare the combined cost of a lender's ILL fee plus an ILL contractor or OCLC service charge to the cost of acquiring the material from a document delivery supplier. In some cases the document delivery service may be able to provide the material as quickly as a lending library at a competitive price. Also, document delivery services will satisfy copyright requirements for you, reducing your administrative costs for your record keeping. Since the FEDLINK transfer pay fee is a percentage of service dollars, establishing accounts with both an ILL fee payment service and a document delivery supplier costs no more than establishing a single account, and may provide you a useful supply alternative.

3.5 Technical Processing Services

Technical processing vendors will supply original cataloging, copy cataloging, retrospective conversion, and physical processing for books and other materials in your library collection. The cataloging conforms to national standards (e.g., Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules and Library of Congress Rule Interpretations), uses the established forms of names and other headings, includes your call numbers, and will also reflect your other local requirements. The vendors will deliver OCLC MARC format cataloging data edited to your local specifications on diskette, tape, or via the Internet, update your holdings in the OCLC union catalog, and ensure that your edited records are archived in OCLC. If the vendor catalogs for you with the piece in hand (instead of using a title page or other surrogate), it can also physically process the item to make it shelf-ready. Depending on the vendor, you may arrange to have materials shipped directly from your book jobber to the vendor or may send the vendor the items or surrogates yourself.

Based on profile information you specify as part of an RFQ, FEDLINK competes for you and the vendors bid a per-item price for your particular cataloging and physical processing job(s). You then order processing for a specific number of items. The technical processing service is not a personnel services contract; for example, it does not cover on-site staffing, serials check-in, loose-leaf updating, or other work often associated with bibliographic control of collections.

A library may choose to have a vendor catalog the more uncommon items that the library acquires, foreign language publications, technical reports, special collections, or other materials that are out of the cataloging mainstream. Other libraries may find it efficient to have a vendor supply copy cataloging for routine materials, or for new acquisitions, thereby freeing the library staff to create original cataloging for agency-specific or highly specialized publications. Having a vendor perform retrospective conversion usually expedites the task of producing machine readable cataloging records from catalog cards or other paper records. FEDLINK vendors will convert your records to OCLC MARC, which is the format of choice for many computer-based library systems.

However, FEDLINK technical processing BOAs are not appropriate for libraries whose cataloging does not follow national standards, such as non-MARC cataloging, non-standard subject analysis, or other practices which require the contractor to consult thesauri and offline tools created and maintained at your site.

FEDLINK has published a Technical Processing Services Kit to help you assess your requirements and guide you through the process for establishing your profile and selecting a vendor. To request a copy of the kit, contact the FEDLINK Fiscal Hotline (202) 707-4900; for help with defining your requirements, contact FNO, (202) 707-4848.

(a) Setting Up Technical Processing (TZ) Services on Your IAG

Technical Processing services are only available under the transfer pay option. For all technical processing jobs, you will establish a temporary TZ account to hold your funding while your competition is underway. After a vendor (or vendors) is selected for your project, FFO will automatically move your funding from the TZ account to an account for the appropriate vendor(s) and LC/C&L will issue your delivery order(s).

&$151;Establish a TZ Account

You may register for TZ on your annual Registration Form or add the service later in the year by amending your IAG. You may establish a TZ account with new funds or through a money move.

—Inform FEDLINK of Your Intent

Even before you set up your TZ account, please submit an Intent to Use Technical Processing Services form to FEDLINK. This form describes the overall scope and extent of your project, and gives FNO and LC/C&L the information they need to prepare for your competition. Based on the intent form, an FNO program specialist will contact you about your project and send you a Technical Processing Services Kit and LC/C&L will write a synopsis of your requirement (if necessary).

(b) Competitions

LC/C&L will issue an RFQ for your individual requirements, whether your order is over $100,000 or under that threshold. The RFQ process enables you to evaluate the vendors' capabilities on special requirements you may have, allows FEDLINK vendors to bid on the jobs they are best able to perform, and encourages them to offer good prices and volume discounts. You may select more than one vendor for your technical processing work. For your RFQ, you may choose one of the three following methods of selecting a vendor.

—Lowest Price

The lowest price approach is the evaluation method to choose if you have a simple cataloging job, one that uses a standard cataloging profile. For a standard job, all of the FEDLINK vendors will be able to process your materials and presumably all would make an offer in response to your RFQ. From those who offer, LC/C&L will simply select the vendor with the lowest price. For an RFQ with this one-step selection methodology, you will simply need to describe your technical requirements (job sheets and profile, see below).

—Lowest Price Among Technically Acceptable Offers

If your cataloging job involves non-English materials, formats other than books or serials, or differs from a standard profile in other ways, you may wish to perform a "lowest price among technically acceptable" selection. In this two-step evaluation process: 1) you make a "yes/no" determination as to whether each offer is technically qualified to perform your particular job; 2) and then, looking only at the vendors who qualified technically, LC/C&L selects the one with the lowest price. For an RFQ with this methodology, you will need to:

  • describe your technical requirements (job sheets, profile, samples, and any additional technical requirements, see below);
  • describe the factors you will use in making the "yes/no" technical determination; and
  • review the quotations the vendors give and document your "yes/no" technical decision for each one.

—Best Value

If the technical aspects of your cataloging job are complex, that is if the materials require specialized analysis skills or significant customizing of MARC records, you may wish to perform a best value selection. In this three-step evaluation process: 1) you review and score the technical offers received under your RFQ; 2) LC/C&L evaluates the vendors' prices and combines each vendor's technical and cost scores into a weighted total score; and, 3) LC/C&L selects the vendor with the best overall weighted score. For an RFQ with this methodology, you will need to:

  • describe your technical requirements (job sheets, profile, samples, additional technical requirements, see below);
  • describe the factors you will use in scoring the offer's technical capabilities;
  • establish overall relative weights for the technical vs. cost scores; and
  • review and score the vendors' technical offers and document your review.

(c) Preparing Your Technical Requirements

For your RFQ you will need to prepare materials that describe your technical requirements.

—Job Sheets

Group the items that you want to have processed the same way into separate "jobs". Each MARC format would be a separate job (e.g., books, serials, audio-visual materials, etc.), original cataloging would be separate from copy cataloging, and so forth. For each job, fill out a job sheet that estimates the number of items to be processed, identifies the classification and subject headings you use, and the OCLC record output format you prefer. Vendors will price each job separately and will give a price for doing all of your jobs together.

—Specifications

You will complete a specifications form that details the exact way you want your items to be processed. If you will be setting up technical processing services for libraries that require different cataloging specifications, you will need to complete a specifications sheet for each group that catalogs a different way. Please call FNO for help in assessing your requirements and filling out your profile.

—Samples

Select up to three representative items from each of your jobs to test the vendors' capabilities. For these samples, the vendors will supply cataloging or retrospective conversion that exactly conforms to your specifications. Thus, if you have a job for original cataloging of technical reports, and one for copy cataloging of foreign-language books, you should supply the title page and verso from up to three representative items from each job. Your samples must be items for which you will be able to evaluate the vendors' cataloging.

—Additional Technical Capabilities

If you require additional technical capabilities that are not covered by your specifications, you will need to describe them in neutral, functional terms.

—Evaluation Factors

If your RFQ method involves a "yes/no" technical review or technical scoring and weighted overall technical/cost scores, you will need to prepare evaluation factors.

(d) OCLC Component of Technical Processing Work

Because the cataloging performed under this service uses the OCLC system and produces OCLC MARC format records, your library must be a current member of the OCLC bibliographic utility (with an three-character OCLC symbol and an active OCLC profile) and must be a member of an OCLC network (not necessarily FEDLINK) to use FEDLINK Technical Processing BOAs. If you are not a current active OCLC member, please inform FNO before you begin your competition.

—OCLC Charges Bill to Year the Work is Performed

Unlike the charges for the technical processing service itself, which are billed to the year in which you placed your technical processing order, the OCLC component of your cataloging or retrospective conversion work is billed to the year in which the vendor uses the OCLC system. These charges will appear on your OCLC account. Thus, you need to factor the vendor's work in with your regular in-house cataloging work when you calculate your annual OCLC budget.

—OCLC Charges Estimated in RFQ

As part of the RFQ, the vendors will estimate the OCLC telecommunications and use charges associated with processing your items according to your specifications. Different methodologies for updating and posting records to the OCLC system result in different costs, and may be considered when you choose a vendor. With the OCLC Usage Statistics Report, you will be able to monitor your vendor's OCLC usage to ensure that it stays in line with the estimates originally provided.

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