A04__NHL_Records_Digitization_SOW.docx

SCOPE OF WORK

Southeast Regional Office Cultural Resources Division, National Historic Landmarks Program NHL Program – Digitization of Records at Federal Records Center

BACKGROUND

The Southeast Regional Office (SERO), located at 100 Alabama St. SW, Atlanta, GA 30303, housed the regional files of the National Historic Landmarks Program. The region includes Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virgin Islands. Across the region there are 419 National Historic Landmarks, additionally the programs files include records on the monitoring of the condition of National Historic Landmarks, and NHL Theme Study records.

DESCRIPTION OF SERVICES REQUESTED

The Contractor, independently and not as an agent of the government, shall provide personnel, supplies, materials, and professional services required to digitize 47 linear feet of mixed federal records.

The Contractor will complete, at a minimum, the following tasks:

1. Provide a detailed schedule for retrieval and refile with the Federal Records Center (FRC). A cost estimate by state would be helpful, but not required.

2. Digitize materials based on current professional standards and guidance set forth by the National Archives Administration (NARA). All textual and visual materials shall be provided to the NPS in JPEG (300 dpi JPEG files at 2400 (in width) pixels with appropriate corresponding length) along with a PDF that has run an optical character recognition (OCR) scan.

3. The NPS will provide descriptive metadata in Excel spreadsheet format. The contractor will supplement the descriptive metadata with technical metadata (to be determined by the NPS) on the same spreadsheet.

4. The government shall recall the specific boxes in the scheduled order supplied by the contractor (see project timeline) and ship the materials to the contractor in the labeled FRC boxes with the DI-105 form, Receipt for Property, to be completed and returned, upon receipt of the boxes.

5. The contractor is responsible for packing the materials for safe return and ensuring delivery to the regional office after project work is complete.[footnoteRef:2] [2: Refiles should be returned to the records centers in their original folders and boxes containing the original transfer number, transfer’s FRC location number and box number. If the folder or boxes are unusable for shipment, copy the transfer number, location, box number, and any other information on the outside of the container onto the front of the replacement box or folder. The NPS will supply these materials if justified.]

SUMMARY OF ITEMS TO BE DIGITIZED

Property records related to regional administration of the National Historic Landmarks Program have one to several file folders containing individual documents, photographs, and drawings. The files are currently organized into state or territory as follows, 47 linear feet of mixed federal records. Please see the attached FRC Container List for a detailed list.

SUMMARY OF RECORDS

ARE THESE TEXTUAL RECORDS PRINTED ON STANDARD 8 ½ X 11 PAPER OR NONTEXTUAL RECORDS OR A COMBINATION OF BOTH?

☐MICROFORM

☒MAPS / DRAWINGS

☒PHOTOS

☐FILM

☐OTHER

Mostly text on 8.5x11 but some 11x17. Photographs (some in sleeves), 24x 36 blueprints, some 11 x 17 drawings or maps, and a few glossy pamphlets.

Note: there may be envelopes with negatives included. Negatives are NOT to be scanned.

Bound documents

~10,000 pages

8.5x11

Assume double sided for scanning

Unbound general documents

~75,000 pages

Up to 11x17

Special handling for onion skin paper, old fax paper, etc.

Oversized drawings

~750 sheets

Greater than 11x17

Some bound blueprints

Photos

~5000

Up to 8x10

Color & Black and White

WHAT IS THE OVERALL CONDITION OF RECORDS?

Fair

WHAT TYPE OF PAPER CONSTITUTES THE MAJORITY OF THE RECORDS FOR THIS PROJECT?

ESTIMATED PERCENTAGE OF ANY FAX PAPER, ONIONSKIN, MULTIPART FORMS, OR CARBON COPIES.

Copier paper, mostly.

Approximately 1% fax or thermo, 7% onionskin, 3% typing paper, 5% photos.

DOCUMENT PREPARATION

CAN CUSTOMER PERFORM ALL DOC PREP AND SHIP TO FRC DCU IN A “READY TO SCAN” STATE?

No – clips, staples, and classification folders will still be included

POST IT NOTES, SMALL PAGES OR PHOTOS TO BE MOUNTED ON SEPARATE PAGE FOR SCANNING LOCATION?

Yes

ARE THE RECORDS IN CASE FILES, CLASSIFICATION FOLDERS, LOOSE-LEAF

BINDERS, BOUND, STAPLED OR BINDER CLIPPED?

Yes

ANY OTHER DOCUMENT PREPARATION REQUIRED BESIDES REMOVAL FROM BOX AND PLACE IN SCANNER?

ESTIMATE THE % OF:

REMOVAL OF STAPLES, PAPER CLIPS, ETC: 10-30%

UNBINDING OR DECONSTRUCTION OF BOOKS: < 2%

COPYING OF FOLDERS, BOUND DOCUMENTS, ETC: 15%

CURRENT FILE STRUCTURE

ARRANGEMENT

Topical by NHL

PRODUCTS & DELIVERABLES

General Provisions The Contractor will digitize the materials in the agreed upon formats set forth by the department of the Interior, National Park Service, and NARA/FRC with embedded metadata as applicable.

The Contractor will provide a final metadata spreadsheet to accompany the scans as a deliverable. The metadata will include all metadata captured or provided by the government or the contractor during the project. This spreadsheet will be used to link materials to the digital files for easy accessibility.

Each item shall be carefully inspected for its condition and the digitization method shall be chosen to most safely and efficiently accommodate the needs of the object. Contractors shall consult with the COR if objects present unique physical challenges and offer procedural options before completing the imaging. Imaging equipment used shall minimize handling, light exposure, wear, and any potential for damage. Sheet fed scanners, roll/drum scanners, and automated page turners shall not be used.

Unless otherwise approved, contractors shall conform to the FADGI’s Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials. The technical guidelines include standards for environment, equipment, file formats, workflow, quality management, metadata, color encoding accuracy, and deliverables, among others. Supports for objects such as book cradles shall be used to reduce stress on the binding materials. Bound materials shall not be “guillotined” (cut or modified to open the binding) for scanning purposes.

Image Capture Internal numbers used by the contractor shall not appear in the captured image.

The contractor shall carefully handle all original material during the digitization process to prevent additional damage. The contractor shall provide proper book cradle equipment to support bound material structure during this process. A roll scanner shall not be used.

The records shall be digitized with one page per image capture. Blank pages shall not be digitized. If covers have writing on the interior this shall also be digitized.

The images shall be captured to create preservation-quality images as 300 dpi JPEG files. Factors such as sharpness, color accuracy, and dynamic range shall be considered to obtain the best quality images.

Use/Access Image A copy of each image captured shall be saved for use and access as a JPEG file. For single sheet objects the images shall be saved at 300 dpi JPEG files at 2400 (in width) pixels with an appropriate corresponding length.

All images shall also be captured in PDF/A format for both preservation and access.

As applicable, each item shall be placed back in their original enclosure in the same order in which it was sent to the contractor.

Image Manipulation The images shall be cropped to eliminate the extreme outer edges of each page. The page edges and the album structure shall not be visible in the images.

Image Filename The images shall be filenamed using the following format: [State]_[Property Name]-[Subject If Applicable]. As an example, the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church shall be filenamed: AL_ Sixteenth Street Baptist Church_Nomination Form.

Internal numbers used by the contractor shall not appear in the filename.

Metadata Metadata shall be embedded in each OCR scanned, PDF file.

Quality Control and NPS Initial Review The contractor shall establish and implement internal quality control/quality assurance (QC/QA) procedures to ensure quality image capture (image orientation, skew, complete capture, etc.) and adherence to technical specifications and metadata standards.

The contractor shall submit the first 15 Master and derived Use/Access Images of each recalled batch for NPS review of scan quality, metadata, file naming conventions, and other contract requirements. This initial review is designed to identify potential issues before scanning is completed. Contractor shall address issues raised by the COR before completing scanning. Review images shall be submitted to the COR through the NPS Sharepoint Site to be created for this project.

Deliverables The contractor shall provide to the COR the combined and bookmarked PDF files for each resource through the NPS SharePoint Site. The contractor shall also provide to the COR a copy of each Use/Access Image. These shall be submitted separate from the PDF files.

If applicable, the contractor shall provide certification of FADGI conformance, measured using the Digital Imaging Conformation Evaluation (DICE) targets and analysis software. The government reserves the right to request and review specific contractor data supporting that certification.

SCHEDULES AND PAYMENTS

Following the award of the contract, all work, including review and approval, shall be carried out beginning on between July 1, 2024 and completed on or before June 30, 2029. Due dates for services, deliverables, and review periods will be confirmed by mutual agreement between the awarded Contractor, and the COR following the contract award. Time is allocated to account for the recall of the FRC Boxes, shipping to the contractor, digitization, review of records, transfer and acceptance of digital files to the NPS, and return of hard copy materials per the above guidance to the NPS. A preliminary timeline follows:

INVOICING

Federal contracts require prospective contractors to register in the System of Awards Management (www.sam.gov) and the Invoice Processing Platform (www.ipp.gov). Following the submission via the Invoice Processing Platform, the Contractor should notify the COR through email.

Invoices must include the following information:

· Company name and address

· Invoice Date

· Invoice Number

· Contract Number or other authorization such as contract modification for services performed

· Description of item in strict accordance with the contract line-item structure of the contract

PAYMENT

Per final negotiated agreement with the awarded Contractor, performance-based payments are permitted for work completed. Prospective contractors shall request performance-based payment in their proposal for consideration. Such requests shall be structured to incorporate the specified phases including all tasks and work deliverables as described.

Payment is contingent upon completion and acceptance of work and receipt of a proper invoice. The Contractor may invoice for partial payments (see below) or wait until the entire job is completed.

Estimated Schedule of Payments

CONTRACT ADMINISTRATION

The Contracting Officer’s Technical Representative (COR) is empowered to inspect and evaluate all work of this Contract for compliance with terms of this Scope of Work Statement.

The Contracting Officer is the only person with the authority to act as agent of the Government under this contract. Only the Contracting Officer has authority to:

(1) direct or negotiate any changes in the Statement of Work or specifications;

(2) modify or extend the period of performance;

(3) change the delivery schedule; or

(4) otherwise change any terms and conditions of this contract.

The Contracting Officer is the only person authorized to make or approve any changes in any of the requirements of this contract and not withstanding any provisions contained elsewhere in this contract, the said authority remains solely in the Contracting Officer. In the event the Contractor makes any changes at the direction of any person other than the Contracting Officer, the change will be considered to have been made without authority and no adjustment will be made in the contract price to cover any increase in costs incurred as a result thereof.

Contracting Officer:

Celinda Hicks, Contracting Officer Interior Region 2 South Atlantic Gulf C:757.412.8601

Contract Officer’s Representative (COR):

TBD at award

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