Professional Indexing Services for Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts (ASFA)

INTRODUCTION:
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) has a requirement for the provision of professional indexing services for the Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts (ASFA) database to fulfill the Department’s obligation as an ASFA partner and to ensure that aquatic and fisheries Canadian content is indexed in the ASFA database.

The purpose of this Advance Contract Award Notice (ACAN) is to signal the government’s intention to award a contract for these services to Alexis Pacey Consulting, Bedford, NS. Before awarding a contract, however, the government would like to provide other suppliers with the opportunity to demonstrate that they are capable of satisfying the requirements set out in this Notice, by submitting a statement of capabilities during the ACAN posting period.

If other potential suppliers submit a statement of capabilities during this ACAN posting period that meets the requirements set out in the ACAN, the government will proceed to a full tendering process on either GETS or through traditional means, in order to award the contract.

If no other supplier submits, on or before the closing date, a statement of capabilities meeting the requirements set out in the ACAN, a contract will be awarded to the pre-selected supplier.

OBJECTIVES:
In 1970, Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts (ASFA) database was established by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) which provides an abstracting and indexing service covering the world's literature on the science, technology, management, and conservation of marine, brackish water, and freshwater resources and environments, including their socio-economic and legal aspects.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada has a responsibility and an agreement with FAO to ensure aquatic and fisheries Canadian content is indexed in ASFA.  In order to accomplish this, DFO requires a contract with a librarian, library technician or someone with significant experience with fisheries or aquatic sciences research tools who is trained in the use of the www-ISS-ASFA software.   

WORK REQUIREMENT:
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada has a requirement for the provision of the following services:

•	To provide professional indexing services and input those submissions to the Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts (ASFA) bibliographic database according to the standards required by the ASFA Advisory Board. The standards will be available upon request.
•	       The expectation of a minimum of 80 indexing contributions on a monthly basis.
•	To undertake appropriate measures to avoid a backlog of indexing to develop.
•	To create or edit existing abstracts for input in ASFA
•	Research may be required to search for the Canadian articles/publications which are required to be indexed in ASFA.
•	The software, www-ISI-ASFA is required and the contractor will need to know how to use this software with the current DFO Windows environment.

The Contractor will need to provide a detailed biweekly progress report with a list of completed contributions, and statistics of inputted contributions. An annual report will be required at the end of each fiscal year(s) of the total list of contributions to the ASFA database.


MINIMUM ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENTS:
•	The ASFA Advisory Board requires that all those entrusted with submitting entries to the ASFA United Nations database be either a librarian, library technician or someone with significant experience with fisheries or aquatic sciences research tools. It is essential that that ASFA indexer has training to use the software, www-ISI-ASFA and has experience in the preparation of the ASFA data prior to inputting. A course is provided by FAO to all ASFA partners (this course is not available to the general public) that explains the rules, authority lists, formats, codes and procedures required by all ASFA indexers.
•	Creation of ASFA indexing entries requires skill and experience with cataloguing, using aquatic sciences thesaurus tools and subject analysis of aquatic sciences research publications. Data entry must follow the ASFA guidelines.
•	An intimate knowledge of the ASFA input screens and marine science publishing industry is required because documenting the indexing process and creating appropriate procedural material comprises part of the deliverables of this contract.
•	The proposed resource must be able to communicate verbally either in English or French and read/write in both English and French.

TRADE AGREEMENTS APPLICABILITY OR OTHER OBLIGATIONS:
No trade agreements are applicable for this requirement.

GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS REGULATIONS EXCEPTION AND LIMITED TENDERING REASONS:
The following policy requirements are applicable to this ACAN process:

Applicable Exceptions to Soliciting Bids under the Government Contracting Regulations (GCRs) (Section 6):

Section 10.2.1 Section 6 (d) only one person or firm is capable of performing the work applies to this ACAN for the following reasons:

•	Data indexing must be done using the www-ISI-ASFA available only to ASFA partners of the FAO.  Training on this software is not available to the general public and therefore there are a very limited number of trained, qualified librarians or library technicians with this training.  The proposed consultant is the only qualified person available to do the work.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY:
None

CONTRACT PERIOD:
The contract period is estimated to be from the date of contract award to March 31, 2015     with the option of extending the contract for two (2) additional one (1) year periods at the discretion of the Minister.

ESTIMATED VALUE:
The total estimated value of the contract shall not exceed $74,880.00 excluding all applicable taxes for the initial one year period including the two (2) option years.

SUPPLIER’S RIGHT TO SUBMIT A STATEMENT OF CAPABILITIES:
Suppliers who consider themselves fully qualified and available to provide the services described herein, may submit a Statement of Capabilities in writing to the Contracting Officer identified in this Notice on or before closing date.  The Statement of Capabilities must clearly demonstrate how the supplier meets the advertised requirements.

CLOSING DATE FOR SUBMITTING STATEMENT OF CAPABILITIES:
Thursday, September  11, 2014 at 2:00 p.m. (ADT)

Inquiries and statements of capabilities are to be directed to:

Cathi Harris	
Senior Contracting Officer
Procurement Hub – Fredericton
Telephone:  (506) 452-3639
Facsimile: (506) 452-3676
Email:  DFOtenders-soumissionsMPO@dfo-mpo.gc.ca