Monday, August 6, 2018
The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) recently completed a Request for Bid (RFB) procurement process working through the Wisconsin Department of Administration as statutorily required. The process was designed to maximize DPI’s buying power by selecting the lowest-cost bidder that could provide a product that best meets rigorous mandatory standards for electronic content in 13 separate Collection areas.
DPI recognized the total cost of the Collections might exceed the current BadgerLink budget and for the first time, the RFB included a clause allowing municipally funded library organizations to purchase selected Collections the DPI could not. Bidders were informed the price they provided for any Collection could be shared with those municipally-funded library organizations to make it easy for them to make purchases without having to conduct separate investigations and negotiations.
The subject areas to be included in Collections were determined with input from the Wisconsin library community. The community also provided input to the mandatory specifications for Collections.
DPI is signing contracts for all but two of the 13 separate electronic Collections included in the RFB. Public, school, or academic libraries may collaborate to identify a municipally-funded fiscal agent to purchase those two other Collections. If a statewide consortial purchase is made through this process, the DPI BadgerLink team is willing to host and provide technical support to the two additional collections on the BadgerLink website.
DPI is NOT licensing the following two Collections:
Collection 11: Full text Works of Literature
Vendor and product selected: Cengage Learning (Gale) - LitFinder
Price specified for the initial two-year (FY19 and FY20) contract: $52,000
Collection 12: Language Learning Resources
Vendor and product selected: Recorded Books - Transparent Languages Online
Price specified for the initial two-year (FY19 and FY20) contract: $69,000
Any library organization interested in learning about responses submitted by vendors not selected for any of the Collections included in the RFB should contact Martha Berninger (martha.berninger@dpi.wi.gov or 608-224-6161).