Attch 3 -- E-book and Audio Book Licensing Statement of Work.pdf

eBooks and Audiobooks License & Purchase Statement of Work

A.1 Background

The Library Store operates under the Retail Section within the Library's Office of Business Enterprises.

The Library of Congress Store supports the Library’ mission through the development and sales of products based on the Library's collections, exhibitions and architecture. The Library Store features custom and general gifts and souvenirs as well as both physical and audio books.

B.2. Scope

The Library Shop requires a Contractor to provide an eBook and Audiobook solution for the retail operation in the Library of Congress. The book selection will be determined and curated by the Library to marry to its brand, collections and exhibitions. The Contractor must be capable of hosting eBooks and digital audio books for resale to consumers. These formats are intended to compliment and expand our existing printed book product assortment. The Contractor shall offer a platform or application that can interface with the retail Shopify website. The Library anticipates a minimum of 500 titles would be made available for sale.

The Library Shop shall make its eBook assortment available for purchase via a secure PC ‘kiosk’ for the onsite store, which shall be accessible for customers using an active open-source browser (i.e. Chrome, Edge.) Both the onsite and online stores shall be accessible via the Shop’s Shopify store. The Contractor shall provide an application or solution that fully integrates with Shopify. The solution must be able pass the Library’s System Security Assessment and Authorization standards.

The solution offered by Contractor shall be such that can be reasonably managed by Library staff for content management, reporting, and administration. The Contractor solution shall provide a customer support team to respond to Library staff service administration questions/issues during business hours (8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. EST). The Library plans to entirely own and manage the customer list it develops through sales.

C.3. Requirements

C.3.1 The Contractor shall supply the titles/imprints from the world’s largest book publishers (i.e.

Penguin Random House, Simon Schuster, Harper Collins, Hachette, university publisher). Contractor shall list the publishers available through their solution. The Contractor shall also identify any content from listed publishers that shall not be available. The Library prefers solutions that include major publishing house, university/academic press, and independent publishers.

C.3.2 The Contractor shall specify what content is available for eBooks and audio books, so that the Library can clearly identify available delivery formats. The Contractor shall provide links (lists) to their content Library along with corresponding earnings/commission structure for the content available.

C.3.3 The digital book content/store shall be solely Library branded.

C.3.4 The Contractor shall provide a platform/solution which shall interface with the Library’s Shopify website www.loc.gov/shop. The Contractor shall describe the process and costs associated with developing, implementing and maintaining the interface shall be included in pricing. System diagram, documentation and security protocols shall be needed.

C.3.5 The Contractor shall describe the ordering ecosystem in their platform including:

http://www.loc.gov/shop

1. Order tracking and notifications for customers and Library operations

2. The content delivery process (i.e. fulfillment)

3. Process for Customer Outreach for issues

4. Public facing payment process

5. Any special hosting requirements/settings

6. Identify any specific equipment, Windows, bandwidth and technical requirements

C.3.6 The Contractor shall provide a testing or beta environment for the Library to validate functionality, configuration, and security prior to go-live.

C.3.7 The Contractor’s solution shall allow customers to purchase the digital book content (eBooks and audiobook) and the Library’s existing Shopify product assortment in a single transaction.

C.3.8 The Contractor shall provide a design template to organize and present content. The Contractor shall provide options for customization as available. This includes product description, options for content exclusion and add-ons like images and links.

C.3.9 The Contractor shall provide training and documentation on the application/solution, so that Library staff can update, market and manage titles to maintain and keep the site current. This training can be either through an online portal or via written documentation by Contractor.

C.4.1 The Contractor shall provide their existing License Agreement and the terms and conditions of this contract. This is a non-exclusive agreement which shall be reviewed by the Library’s general counsel for acceptance. The agreement will have the condition that it can be severed with 90 days written notice by either party.

C.4.2 The Contractor shall identify how costs and earnings shall be attributed for books sales on the application/solution. The Contractor shall specify the payout frequency and currency (i.e. monthly on the 25th), payment type and method (i.e. EFT), and currency (if other than USD$). And shall include, at a minimum:

1. Methodology or list for wholesale pricing

2. Methodology for calculating earnings from sale by the Library (reporting required for tracking)

3. Any special publisher pricing such as MAPPS

4. Additional discounts- describe how they are earned

C.4.4 Contractor shall give prior notice to the Library should the need to refuse service arise.C.5 Portfolio Updates; Customer Lists; Storage and Data Transfer; Access to Sales Information

C.5.1 Portfolio updates shall occur on a quarterly basis.

C.5.2 Customer lists shall be owned by the Library. Contractor shall have access to the customer list solely for the purposes of operating, maintaining and fulfilling content sold on the platform, and shall not be used for any marketing or soliciting of any kind. No Library customer data shall be stored on any other servers. No personally identifiable customer information shall be saved or stored in Contractor servers.

C.5.3 The Library shall be notified of any additional data storage and data transfer fees. The Contractor shall notify of tiered storage fees or minimum monthly fees.

C.5.4 The Contractor shall have access to necessary portions of the Library’s Shopify account, solely to execute mandatory application updates, verify total monthly sales, and support application upgrades and changes.

C.6 Kick Off Meeting

C.6.1 The Contractor shall hold a meeting with the Contracting Officers Representative (COR) to review a detailed project plan no later than two weeks after award date, to confirm the anticipated delivery dates.

C.7 Deliverables

Schedule

C.7.1 The contractor shall provide the following:

Deliverable Date Due eBooks and audiobooks portal/platform ready for testing

60 days from contract award

Training & documentation – can be offered through online portal or written documentation

90 days from contract award

Completion of platform/ interface UAT testing 120 days from contract award

Final acceptance 140 days from contract award

C.3. Requirements