BETASAM JOFOC.docx

Justification for other than full and open competition For Enterprise wide online subscription to Royal Society of Chemistry journals

1. Contracting Activity USDA, ARS, APD, Acquisition Branch 5601 Sunnyside Avenue, MS 5116 Beltsville, MD 20705-5116

2. Nature/Description of Action The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), National Agricultural Library (NAL) intends to award a firm fixed-price contract with a base and three (3), one year option periods to the Royal Society of Chemistry, to provide electronic access via IP authentication over the internet for all USDA users for selected Royal Society of Chemistry journals.

3. Description of Supplies/Services NAL requires electronic access via IP authentication over the internet to specified Royal Society of Chemistry journals for use by all USDA employees, authorized public on-site users cooperators and volunteers working on behalf of USDA and acting within the scope of their relationship with USDA. Access includes perpetual data rights to the content that is made available to USDA during the performance period. The contractor shall provide, on request by USDA, all subscribed-to purchased content in a mutually agreed-upon non-proprietary format.

The independent government cost estimate for a base and five option years, based on previous subscriptions to these journals and the 4.5% industry standard rate of annual increase would be:

4. Statutory Authority The procurement is in accordance with 41 U.S.C 3304(a)(1), and FAR 13.106-1(b) and 13.501(a)

5. Demonstration of Contractor’s Unique Qualifications and/or Product’s Unique Features

The National Agricultural Library (NAL) is mandated (7 U.S.C. 3101) to serve as the primary agricultural information resource of the United States. One of its functions in that role is the acquisition of information in all aspects of agriculture and allied sciences. In support of this function, the NAL acquires journal publications in electronic format from publishers and makes the journals accessible to USDA employees and library patrons via the internet. In keeping with its charge to collect agricultural and related information, it seeks to maintain a collection of publications in various formats from a variety of publishers and sources.

The Royal Society of Chemistry is the only source for the specific mix of journal titles needed by the National Agricultural Library (NAL). NAL has a need for current access to specific journal titles and the only source for these “ala carte” selections is directly through the Royal Society of Chemistry.

If NAL were to purchase a subject aggregation/collection through a re-seller, many of the titles would be delivered after an embargo period. Therefore, our researchers would only be able to see the articles several weeks or a month after the article was published.

Also resellers don't include every article or every issue, or all of the associated information (letters, sidebars, etc.) published in each journal every year. And they can drop titles from their collection at any time. They generally cannot convey perpetual access rights to these articles. Also in order to get 100% of the content of every issue of a journal, with perpetual access rights, as soon as the article is published (or even earlier, now that they appear on websites) we need to contract directly with the publisher, who has all of those rights (and obligations.) And the library needs those rights in order to have an electronic journal serve the same purpose and fill the same needs as the print journals we used to subscribe to for the library collection.

NAL requires the most current and up-to-date journals to be able to provide access to all USDA scientists which in turn allows the scientists to meet the agency’s mission. It’s critical to the agency mission that NAL have 100% of the content of every issue of a journal, with perpetual access rights, as soon as the article is published.

6. Contract Opportunities Announcement/Potential Sources.

SSN NOTICE POST ON BETASAM ON 9/7/21 WITH NO RESPONSES.

7. Determination of Fair and Reasonable Cost A fair and reasonable price will be determined based on published catalog prices and historical pricing of similar items. Renewal cost proposed is within industry standard for expected annual subscription price increases, based on the Library Journal annual Periodicals Price Survey 2021, https://www.libraryjournal.com/?detailStory=The-New-Abnormal-Periodicals-Price-Survey-2021

8. Market Survey Market research is conducted by NAL staff through review of industry publications such as Library Journal and Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory, attendance at library conferences such as the American Library Association and Computers in Libraries conference, and participation in discussion groups with other acquisitions librarians. Library staff meet with vendors at these conferences to review their product lines and pricing

9. Additional Support No other facts supporting the use of other than full and open competition are available. A determination has been made that only one vendor can fulfill the need of the NAL.

10. Other Interested Sources There is only one source available for the specific journal content required.

11. Actions Taken to Remove Barriers to Future Competition The journals provided by the vendor are proprietary. The library subscribes to journals from a large number of publishers and monitors industry trends to ensure that image1.png image2.wmf