Geoscience World (GSW)

Definition

An Advance Contract Award Notice (ACAN) allows departments and agencies to post a notice, for no less than fifteen (15) calendar days, indicating to the supplier community that it intends to award a good, service or construction contract to a pre-identified contractor.  If no other supplier submits, on or before the closing date, a Statement of Capabilities that meets the requirements set out in the ACAN, the competitive requirements of the government's contracting policy have been met.  Following notification to suppliers not successful in demonstrating that their Statement of Capabilities meets the requirements set out in the ACAN, the contract may then be awarded using the Treasury Board's electronic bidding authorities.

If other potential suppliers submit Statement of Capabilities during the fifteen calendar day posting period, and meet the requirements set out in the ACAN, the department or agency must proceed to a full tendering process on either the government's electronic tendering service or through traditional means, in order to award the contract.

	Definition of Requirements

The Geoscience World (GSW) represents a collaboration of membership organizations in the geosciences and its collection incorporates the full text of 41 major geoscience journals from 26 + societies and institutes from around the world.  NRCan Library has had a subscription since July 1, 2005 when these print journals first became available electronically. These journals are core resources to our Earth Science Sector clients accounting for over 21,500 full-text downloaded articles in 2011-2012.  

The purpose of this requirement is to provide Natural Resources Canada Library (NRCan Library) at 6 sites (see TABLE A for addresses and number of FTE) with a subscription to and training in the use of the Geoscience World (GSW) Millennium Collection and Literature Archives which consists of 36 + full text online journals (see TABLE B for titles and date coverage) and to provide the functionality of allowing direct linking to GSW from GeoRef. 

NRCAN Library requires the supplier to provide the following product, services and features to the 6 sites:

1.	Geoscience World   Millennium Collection and Literature Archives – see TABLE –A for title list and date coverage. 

2.	Ability to accept linking from citations found in Georef to the full text of journals in Geoscience World.

3.	Bibliographic Software – The ability to download search results to bibliographic software such as End Note.

4.	Alerts – The ability to provide clients with alerts.

5.	Search Functionalities - ability to provide a variety of search capabilities such as the following examples: browse a selection of journals or all journals at once, search by meeting, search for a geographic location by name, physiographic feature or longitude and latitude, select articles citing a particular research paper or institution.

6.	Account Support - ability to provide monthly Usage Statistics.

7.	Telephone and e mail assistance with technical problems relating to Geoscience World, during normal working hours at all sites across Canada. 

8.	Training and Technical Support – The ability to provide on-site and online training across Canada to all relevant Natural Resources Canada Library sites, as well as provision of bilingual training and marketing tools.  The ability to provide timely telephone and e-mail assistance with technical problems relating to Geoscience World, during normal working hours at all sites across Canada.

	Trade Agreements

The following exclusion(s) and/or limited tendering reasons are invoked under:

North American Free Trade Agreement, Canada-Chile, Canada-Columbia and Canada-Peru (Annex 1001.1b 2)

Annex 1001.1b 2 Services, Section B - Excluded Coverage Schedule of Canada Services 
D.	Information Processing and Related Telecommunications Services
D317	Automated News Service, Data Services, or Other Information Services. Buying data, the electronic equivalent of books, periodicals, newspapers, etc. 
Agreement on Internal Trade (Article 506.12)
Article 506 Section 12 (k) - for the procurement of subscriptions to newspapers, magazines or other periodicals

	Title to Intellectual property 

This procurement action will not result in the development of any intellectual property.

	Contract Period

The contract will be for a one year period from date of contract award with the option to extend the contract for four (4) additional one (1) year periods.

	Estimated Cost

Cost of subscription is approximately $31,500.00 USD per year (total potential value of contract is approximately $ 157,500.00 USD). 

	Exception to the Government Contracts Regulations 

Sole Source Justification   Exception of the Government Contract Regulations (GCR):

Section 6 (d) Only one person or firm is capable of performing the contract

NRCan requires access to 41 core earth science journals.  Geoscience World is a database providing full text access to these 41 core earth science journals used by our researchers. The publishers of these journals have given Geoscience World exclusive rights to provide access to these electronic versions of their journals, making Geoscience World the only electronic source for these journals. The various geological associations whose journal titles make up the database publish the electronic version only through Geoscience World.

NRCan Library and clients in the Earth Sciences Sector are able to access full text versions of these titles for research, study and information exchange activities such as interlibrary loan. 
Geoscience World is the only publisher to provide the electronic version of the core earth science journal titles required.

	Name and Address of the Proposed Contractor

GeoScienceWorld
4220 King Street 
Alexandria, VA 22302 

	Inquiries on Submission of Statement of Capabilities

Suppliers who consider themselves fully qualified and available to provide the services/goods described herein, may submit a Statement of Capabilities in writing, preferably by e-mail, to the contact person identified in this Notice on or before the closing date and time of this Notice.  The Statement of Capabilities must clearly demonstrate how the supplier meets the advertised requirements.

	Closing Date

The closing date for submitting statements of capabilities is August 16, 2013 at 2:00 PM EST.

	Contract Authority

Lisa Escander
Procurement Team Leader
Natural Resources Canada
615 Booth St.
Ottawa, ON
K1A 0E9
Telephone: (613) 992-7804
Fax: (613) 996-1024
E-mail: Lisa.Escander@NRCan.gc.ca