2023-SOW-AVPreservationReformatting-v01.docx

Statement of Work (SOW) for FY23 Audiovisual Preservation Reformatting Contract

1.0 General

1.1 Background

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) is a federal agency and one of the 27 institutes and centers of the National Institutes of Health. As the world’s largest biomedical library, NLM maintains and makes available a vast print and non-print collection and produces electronic information resources on a wide range of topics that are searched billions of times each year by millions of people around the globe. It also supports and conducts research, development, and training in biomedical informatics and health information technology. In addition, the Library coordinates a 6,500-member National Network of Libraries of Medicine that promotes and provides access to health information in communities across the United States.

NLM is employing digitization as a preservation reformatting method for all audiovisual (AV) holdings recorded on legacy media. The NLM AV collection consists of professionally‐produced commercial and non‐commercial recordings. Content consists of instructional and educational titles, public health material, commercial productions with medical themes, public service announcements, histories of medicine, recordings of public lectures and ceremonies, and documentary footage of biomedical research.

1.2 Objective

Library Operations of the National Library of Medicine proposes to employ digitization as the preservation reformatting method for NLM audiovisual (AV) holdings. Physical condition of materials, quality of recording, and runtimes vary. AV formats include but are not limited to ¾” U‐matic videotape, ½” VHS, ¼” Open reel audio, 1” Type C videotape, 2” Quad videotape, 16 mm film, and 35 mm film. Each AV title shall receive a Preservation, Derivative, and Service video files with accompanying METS XML preservation metadata. Contractor shall provide a list of AV formats that they can accommodate, which shall include the formats listed above. Upon successful evaluation of the project deliverables (excluding preservation metadata), the digital surrogates will be made Section 508 compliant via an internal NLM workflow for ingest to the NLM Digital Repository.

1.3 Scope of Work

The contractor shall provide all resources necessary to accomplish the tasks and deliverables described in this Statement of Work (SOW). The contractor shall digitize audiovisual material of various film, video, and audio formats.

1.4 Period of Performance

The period of performance of this contract is September 2023 to September 2024.

1.5 Place of Performance

All reformatting work shall be performed at the contractor’s facility.

Telework: In cases of weather or other extreme emergency, telework is acceptable by the Government where the requirements are conducive to executing work in a location other than the Contractor’s worksite. In no case should work material or hard drives be transported outside of the continental United States for processing.

1.6 Applicable Documents

· Technical / Video File Specifications Document

· Preservation Metadata Specifications Document

2.0 Specific Requirements/Task(s)

Independently, and not as an agent of the Government, the contractor will manually inspect, clean, treat, and repair as necessary each audiovisual element prior to digital transfer, following best practices in the field. The Contractor will use state-of-the-art equipment and processes to convert the source audiovisual item to a preservation-quality video file. The Contractor will also produce from the Preservation file a Mezzanine and Service derivative for presentation purposes. Specifications for Preservation, Mezzanine, and Service files will be refined in consultation between the Contractor and the Government.

In some cases, film titles include multiple elements and copies. In these instances, the Contractor will assess each element to determine which is most complete and suitable for reformatting.

The Contractor program/project manager will work collaboratively with the Government COR and Program Manager. The COR will consult with the Contractor during all phases of the activities, reviewing plans prior to implementation, reviewing work for accuracy, and making recommendations as needed to ensure conformance to NLM specifications and timely completion of the work.

2.1 Reformatting of audiovisual materials to produce Preservation, Mezzanine, and Service video file deliverables.

Reproduction setup, signal path, image and sound processing, and destination file format specifications for Preservation, Mezzanine, and Service level file deliverables will be delineated in the Technical / Video File Specifications Document.

NLM will provide the Contractor with shipments of 5 to 100 source audiovisual items for processing with each order. The number and length of each item included in each shipment may vary.

The contractor shall be required to:

a) Inspect the condition of each item and provide a brief condition report

b) Clean each item according to industry standards and best practices

c) In some instances, NLM may provide multiple copies of a title and ask that the contractor determine most suitable elements for reformatting based on condition and completeness

d) Treat and repair damaged items as needed, according to industry standards and best practices

e) If separate picture and sound elements exist for a title, digitize both picture and sound elements separately, synchronize, and create composite files.

f) Convert original audiovisual item(s) to digital Preservation, Mezzanine, and Service files according to image and audio specifications provided in the Technical / Video File Specifications Document. Likely formats include FFV1, Apple ProRes MOV, and MP4. See sample specifications below, which may change when tasks are formally issued.

Sample Preservation-level File for 16 mm film item

2.2 METS XML Preservation Metadata File

The contractor shall supply one METS XML external metadata file per title per the specifications delineated in the Preservation Metadata Specifications Document. There is no burden on the contractor to make the METS XML metadata file Section 508 compliant.

Summary of METS XML Metadata File

· METS file shall validate against the METS XSD, defined at http://www.loc.gov/standards/mets/mets.xsd.

· METS file shall contain amdSec, dmdSec, techMD, sourceMD, digiprovMD, fileSec, and structMap.

· digiprovMD, under amdSec, shall be populated using PREMIS (www.loc.gov/standards/premis).

· DmdSec shall be populated using Dublin Core (http://dublincore.org/).

· TechMD shall capture technical metadata of preservation master and derivative files and shall be populated using PBCore (http://pbcore.org/).

· SourceMD shall capture technical metadata of original source item and shall be populated using PBCore (http://pbcore.org/).

· Checksum values shall be generated using MD5 algorithm.

· METS file shall contain hardware and software information for each event, or action performed on original source item or digital file, e.g. transfer, compression, etc.

· METS file shall contain information capturing any treatment on and/or artifacts of original source item, e.g. baking, poor color, audio hiss, etc.

2.3 Contractor Quality Assurance and Control

The contractor shall be responsible for documenting and following quality assurance protocols and methodologies for this project. NLM will apply the following Quality Assurance criteria in the review and acceptance of all deliverables.

1. Timely return of digital files (45-day turnaround for each batch)

2. Adherence to required technical specifications

3. Completion of required metadata fields in format requested by NLM

4. Percentage of reworks (no more than 5% per batch)

5. Communication with COR (resolving issues that may arise)

6. Timely return of original media

7. Communication with COR upon deletion of project files from vendor servers

(a) Technical Performance All task requirements met with little to no re-work/re- performance required and with few minor or no significant problems No significant rework or re-performance required during reporting period. Any minor issues successfully addressed.

Periodic inspection of contractor performance, status reports and invoices.

(b) Schedule Compliance

milestones.

Review and acceptance procedures for deliverables and accomplishment of milestones per task order criteria.

scope Contractor correspondence with the Contracting Officer.

3.0 Delivery or Deliverables

Timely submission of deliverables and reports is essential to successfully completing this requirement. Schedules for deliverables are specified below. All deliverables shall be prepared and submitted according to media, content, and schedule described in the Statement of Work.

a. Files shall be delivered per the structure and naming instructions provided. No files held locally by the contractor shall be deleted prior to NLM giving approval to do so.

b. All hard drives shall be shipped in their original packaging. Additional padding shall be placed along the interior of the shipping container on all sides of packaged storage media.

c. Delivery media (external hard drive) shall retain its assigned unique identifier. IDs shall be determined and provided by NLM.

d. Packages shall have a box ID label affixed to the box and contain a manifest identifying the contents of each shipment. The manifest shall contain the identifier of each hard drive within the package, as well as the Bag ID and NLM Unique Identifier of the storage media’s contents.

e. All files shall be maintained on the contractor’s data storage systems while NLM performs quality control.

f. NLM shall perform extensive quality control of delivered batch. Contractor shall be notified of completion of NLM QC via email.

g. The contractor shall resolve any rework and quality control issues without additional charge and within 30 business days of receiving notification by NLM.

h. Shipment of the original items back to NLM shall take place after NLM confirms that initial quality control is complete and all initial quality control problems are resolved. Contractor shall ensure that deliveries are received by NLM during business hours and that shipments shall not be held at delivery facilities over weekends.

i. Original items shall be shipped using same packaging methodology in which they were received, including a manifest identifying the contents of each shipment.

Notice to offerors:

All information and data related to this project that the contractor gathers or obtains shall be both protected from unauthorized release and considered the property of the government. The contracting officer will be the sole authorized official to release verbally or in writing, any data, the draft deliverables, the final deliverables, or any other written or printed materials pertaining to this contract. Press releases, marketing material, or any other printed or electronic documentation related to this project, must not be publicized without the written approval of the contracting officer.

4.0 Meetings

Meetings will be conducted via teleconferencing. Meetings that are essential to performance monitoring include:

4.1. Post-award Kickoff Meeting

Within 5 business days of contract award, the Government will conduct a post-award kickoff meeting at via teleconference at a specific date and time to be mutually agreed upon.

4.2. Intermittent Project Status Reviews

At the sole discretion of the Government, intermittent project status reviews may be conducted on an informal basis (by telephone or teleconference). The Government anticipates no more than two intermittent project status reviews per month.

4.3. Monthly Project Status Reviews

Monthly status meetings to be conducted on the first Monday of each month. The Contractor is responsible for reporting the previous month’s activities (including any risks, issues, or concerns, and actual or recommended actions for their mitigation), and projected activities for the following month.

5.0 Required Travel and Other Direct Costs (ODCs)

The principal place of performance is the Contractor’s site. Accordingly, reimbursable travel and per diem for the contractor’s employees performing work on a regular basis at this place of performance is not authorized. Any changes to this must be approved in advance by the contracting officer.

6.0 Government Furnished Property/Equipment/Information

The Government may provide hard drives for return of digital media. Hard drives not provided by the Government will be the responsibility of the Contractor to procure. Provision of hard drives will be specified in each order.

Unless otherwise indicated, all films, media, and hard drives will be retained as property of the U.S. Government.

7.0 Special Instructions

7.1 Continuity of Operations

The Contractor shall submit a plan entitled Continuity of Operations During a Government Closure to the COR for approval within 20 calendar days following an instruction from the COR to do so. The plan shall sufficiently specify what work tasks would be performed at non-Government location(s) (i.e., not a “Federally-controlled facility”) during a closure and which Contractor employees would be authorized to telework under the TELEWORK provision of this acquisition.

The Contractor shall implement its approved Continuity of Operations During a Government Closure plan when directed by the COR.