by Matt Lee
Quick Summary
The Request for Proposal (RFP) that defines our needs for a statewide database collection was released publicly on January 24th.
The Request for Proposal (RFP) that defines our needs for a statewide database collection was released publicly on January 24th. Vendors have until February 25th to respond to that RFP with the databases they propose to meet those needs. The RFP asks many questions of vendors, both about their products and about their business practices. Thank you to the SER Task Force for their work in writing those questions.
At a high level, the RFP calls for “e-resources which cover a wide variety of subject categories and material types, to contribute to a core database collection that serves libraries of all types in the region.” The coverage areas we identify (in no particular order) include:
- Multidisciplinary
- Health information
- PreK-12 resources
- Information technology
- Professional/scholarly literature
- Business information
- General reference
- News sources
- World languages
- World cultures
- Career and test prep resources
We hope to see a range of responses proposing resources that cover this broad spectrum.
The next phase of the RFP process is managed by the University of Minnesota Purchasing Office. All interested vendors can find full documentation at the UMN Purchasing website and all questions from vendors should be directed to that UMN Purchasing Office while the RFP is open.
Trial access
Vendors that respond to the RFP will provide trial access to the resources they propose. The library community in Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota will have the opportunity to try out these resources and provide feedback to us. Look for more information on that in early March, and thanks in advance for your input.
More info
Information on the project timeline, Shared E-Resources Task Force, and more is on our Statewide Database Selection Process 2019-2020 web page.
