36C77619Q0170-001.docx

FedBizOpps Special Notice

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CONTRACTING OFFICE'S

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SOLICITATION NUMBER

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DAYS AFTER THE RESPONSE DATE

RECOVERY ACT FUNDS

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CONTRACTING OFFICE

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POINT OF CONTACT

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GENERAL INFORMATION

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

* = Required Field FedBizOpps Special Notice Rev. March 2010 R HIGVACOLib19-X Embase Research Database Subscription

(VA-19-00067114)

44131 36C77619Q0170 N 519130 Department of Veterans Affairs Program Contracting Activity Central 6150 Oak Tree Blvd, Suite 300 Independence OH 44131 Charles E. Holmes, Jr.

Contracting Officer charles.holmes@va.gov http://www.va.gov/ Department of Veterans Affairs Homepage charles.holmes@va.gov charles.holmes@va.gov

SPECIAL NOTICE – NOTICE OF INTENT TO SOLE SOURCE

Annual License Subscription to EMBASE 36C77619Q0170

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Veterans Health Administration (VHA), Central Office (VACO) Library requires an Annual License online subscription which will be made available to all VACO Library staff and employees.

Program Contracting Activity Central (PCAC) intends to issue a sole source solicitation to Elsevier Inc., 230 Park Avenue, Suite 800, New York, NY 10169 requesting an Annual License subscription to EMBASE.

This procurement is being conducted in accordance with FAR 6.302-1(a)(2), “Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements.” The NAICS code for this procurement is 519130 and the Small Business Administration Size Standard is 1,000.

This Notice is not a request for competitive quotes. No solicitation document is available and telephone requests will not be accepted. However, any responsible source who believes it can of meet the requirements may submit a capability statement, proposal, or quotation, which shall be considered by the agency, only if received by the closing date and time of this notice. Responses received will be evaluated; however, a determination by the Government not to compete the proposed procurement based upon responses received to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government.

Requirements:

See attached Draft Statement of Work (SOW).

Submittal Information:

Contractors having ability to perform the stated requirements should submit a single spaced, 12-point font minimum, response to the information identified in the Notice. Please also submit a cover page which includes, at a minimum, the company’s name, address, Dunn & Bradstreet (DUNS) number, General Service Administration (GSA) contract number (if applicable), point-of-contact name, phone number, and e-mail address.

Companies shall provide clear and unambiguous evidence to substantiate their capability to fulfill the requirements outlined in this Notice.

Please provide Company business size and status - (i.e., Large Business, Small Business, Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business, Veteran Owned Small Business, Women-Owned Small Business, etc.) Any affiliate information (parent company, joint venture partners, potential teaming partners, and VA Mentor Protégé Program membership status), as well as the number of years in business should also be provided.

It is requested that the above information be provided no later than Monday August 19th, 2019, 9:00AM EST. Responses should be emailed to Charles E. Holmes, Jr. at charles.holmes@va.gov. All Email Correspondence for this project must reference the Notice Number, Project Identifier and Project Title in the subject line of the email. Example: 36C77619Q0170 - Annual License Subscription to EMBASE. No phone calls will be accepted.

RESULTS INFORMATION: Responses will not be returned; neither will Respondents be notified of the Government's evaluation of the information received. The Government may incorporate into the final version of the SOW any information or comment resulting from this request that is determined to be useful. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted under this Notice.

DISCLAIMER:

This Notice is issued solely for information and planning purposes only and does not constitute a solicitation. All information received in response to this Notice that is marked as proprietary will be handled accordingly. Responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. Responders are solely responsible for all expenses associated with responding to this Notice.

Page 1 of Statement of Work Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Health Administration

VACOLib19 EMBASE Annual License

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Veterans Health Administration (VHA), Central Office (VACO) Library requires an Annual License subscription to EMBASE which will be made available to all VACO Library staff and employees.

2.0 Background:

EMBASE is a highly versatile, multipurpose and up-to-date biomedical research database. It covers the most important international biomedical literature from 1947 to the present day and all articles are indexed in depth using Elsevier's Life Science thesaurus. The entire database is also conveniently available on multiple platforms.

EMBASE allows VACO Library staff to work faster and better. For users looking for adverse drug events, drug efficacy studies, medical device and disease-related biomedical research information, Embase delivers immediate access to a range of intuitive search tools that help them find exact answers to their research questions quickly and easily.

a. Uncover drug-disease relationships and drug-drug interactions – Discover more biomedical evidence by searching comprehensive, relevant and up-to-date biomedical research.

b. Monitor literature for adverse events more efficiently – Adverse events are much easier and faster to identify using the world's most comprehensive biomedical literature database.

c. New local literature modules to Embase as an add-on. Their first module is the French Local Literature Module. It enables users to align the monitoring of French-language journals for adverse drug reactions with their global processes. This streamlines literature search, triage and review.

EMBASE also has the following features: Journal coverage from 1947 to the present, over 32 million records, including MEDLINE titles, 8,500 journals from over 95 countries, including MEDLINE titles, 2,900 indexed journals unique to Embase, over 1.5 million records added yearly, with an average of over 6,000 each day, 2.4 million conference abstracts indexed from more than 7,000 conferences dating from 2009, full-text indexing of drug, disease and medical device data, and local literature modules available as add-on.

3.0 Scope of Work:

The contractor shall provide all VACO employees with online access to a single online, web-based subscription to EMBASE. Authentication shall be through user/password only.

a. The contractor shall provide an unrestricted number of simultaneous users with immediate access from any web-enabled computer within VACO. OpenAthens access is preferred as a supplement.

b. The contractor shall assure the requirements listed in paragraphs 6, Information Quality, 7, Usability, 8, Currency, and 9, Access, Content, Support, are addressed.

4.0 Performance Period: One (1) year from date of award, plus two (2) one (1) year option periods to be exercised at the discretion of the Government.

5.0 Information Quality:

The contractor shall assure:

a. Information is accurate, authoritative, and relevant.

b. Authors and sources are well recognized subject matter experts in their fields.

c. Policies for determining validity and standards for inclusion of material are well described.

d. Guidelines and summaries include references or sources.

6.0 Usability:

The contractor shall assure:

a. Navigation within the system is logical and is easy to use. There is fast access to topics and subtopics. Topic linking or indexing retrieves material of high relevance quickly.

b. The product has “user friendly” help and direction aids.

c. Users can quickly and easily locate information by browsing by topic or category, or searching for a specific subject

7.0 Currency:

The contractor shall assure content areas are updated on a continuous, incremental cycle rather than on a single anniversary date for the entire product.

8.0 Access, Content, Support:

The contractor shall assure:

a. Product is 508 compliant (http://www.section508.gov/). If product is not 508 compliant, the contractor shall describe measures being taken to bring product into compliance and date, within 12 months of contract award, that product will be 508 compliant. Or, if product is not 508 compliant, the contractor shall describe why no work is being done to make it 508 compliant.

b. All site content and support of the web site is the responsibility of the contractor.

c. System downtime is minimal and VA project manager is notified when such occurs.

d. Information is easily printed.

e. Customer service is available 24/7/365 via toll free number.

f. Usage statistics are available to the system administrator on an enterprise and IP level.

g. The product is accessible via a variety of personal mobile devices including Apple and Android devices.

h. The product’s licensing agreement permits free use for educational purposes of all pictures and graphics.

i. Graphics, pictures, and/or images that are searchable are highly desirable.

j. Onsite and telephonic instruction and training materials are available and designed to integrate solutions with maximum efficiency and effectiveness into the VA Central Office Library’s environment.

B. Price/Cost Schedule:

Base Period of Performance

TBD

Option Year One (1) of Two (2)

TBD

Option Year Two (2) of Two (2)

TBD

Total