RFI FDC 1254.pdf

Virtual Library of Virginia

Request for Information

RFI# FDC-1254

eBook Collections

March 9, 2026

This RFI is strictly for information. No contract or agreement will result.

Information gathered from responses to this RFI may be used in the development of a Request for Proposal that is in alignment with University objectives.

March 9, 2026

Dear Prospective Respondent:

James Madison University (JMU or the University) is considering the acquisition of academic eBook collections for the Virtual Library of Virginia (VIVA), the academic library consortium of Virginia and an agency of the Commonwealth of Virginia. In order to gain an understanding of the resources, technology, services, integrations, and other offerings that exist in the current marketplace, we are issuing a Request for Information (RFI). Insight gathered from responses to this RFI will assist in developing future sourcing and contracting activities in alignment with consortial objectives. Responding to this RFI will neither increase nor decrease the chances of a firm being awarded a contract resulting from any future sourcing or contracting activities.

If VIVA decides to pursue a separate Request for Proposal (RFP), solicitations will be made through a separate procurement process. This RFI is strictly for information, and no contract or agreement will result;

however, VIVA reserves the right to pursue future sourcing and contracting activities where appropriate.

All information received as part of this RFI will remain the property of the University.

The University will pay no costs incurred by any respondent in preparing a response. Questions should be submitted directly to my attention at chestefd@jmu.edu.

Sincerely, Doug Chester, VCO, CUPO Buyer Senior, JMU Procurement Services mailto:chestefd@jmu.edu

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

RFI# FDC-1254

Issue Date: March 9, 2026

Title: eBook Collections Issuing Agency: Commonwealth of Virginia

James Madison University Procurement Services MSC 5720

752 Ott Street, Wine Price Bldg.

First Floor, Suite 1023 Harrisonburg, VA 22807

RESPONSES DUE: 2:00 p.m. EST on April 15th, 2026

Provide one (1) original and two (2) copies of the entire proposal, INCLUDING ALL ATTACHMENTS. Any proprietary information should be clearly marked.

SEALED RESPONSES MAY BE MAILED, EXPRESS MAILED, SUBMITTED IN eVA, OR HAND

DELIVERED DIRECTLY TO THE ISSUING AGENCY SHOWN ABOVE.

All Inquiries for Information and Clarification Should Be Directed To: Doug Chester, Buyer Senior, Procurement Services, chestefd@jmu.edu; 540/568-4272 (Fax) 540/568-7935 not later than five business days before the proposal closing date.

Name and Address of Firm:

By:

(Signature in Ink) Name:

(Please Print) Title:

Date: Phone:

Web Address: Fax #:

Email:

ACKNOWLEDGE RECEIPT OF ADDENDUM (if applicable): #1___ #2___ #3___ #4___ #5___ (please initial)

SMALL, WOMAN OR MINORITY OWNED BUSINESS:

• YES; • NO; IF YES ⇒⇒ • SMALL; • W O MAN ; • MIN O RITY IF MINORITY: • AA; • HA; • AsA; • NW

Note: This public body does not discriminate against faith-based organizations in accordance with the Code of Virginia, § 2.2-4343.1 or against a bidder or offeror because of race, religion, color, sex, national origin, age, disability, or any other basis prohibited by state law relating to discrimination in employment.

Rev. 3/5/14 (Previous Rev 1/27/14) ABS

I. REQUEST FOR INFORMATION #RFI-1254

The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to obtain information regarding academic eBook collections for the Virtual Library of Virginia (VIVA), the academic library consortium of Virginia, and an agency of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Insight gathered from responses to this RFI will assist in developing future sourcing and contracting activities in alignment with consortial objectives. Responding to this RFI will neither increase nor decrease the chances of a firm being awarded a contract from any future sourcing or contracting activities.

II. BACKGROUND STATEMENT

VIVA is the consortium of the Commonwealth of Virginia’s nonprofit academic libraries serving the higher education community. Members include both the state-assisted (public) and the independent nonprofit (private) colleges and universities. VIVA's mission is to provide, in an equitable, cooperative, and cost-effective manner, enhanced access to library and information resources for its member institutions. VIVA negotiates purchases on behalf of all members: all 39 public colleges and universities, all 32 nonprofit private colleges and universities, and The Library of Virginia. See Attachment A: VIVA Members for a list of participating institutions, including the total number of FTE students.

Two high-priority areas of service provided by VIVA include: 1) shared access to online library resources, and 2) activities to enhance support of interlibrary lending among the libraries. Since 1994, VIVA has acquired content that has included, but is not limited to, databases, ejournals, eBooks, and streaming media for the academic libraries of Virginia.

VIVA member institutions include all of the following:

● Public Institutions: The public institutions include all 39 state-assisted colleges and universities within the Commonwealth of Virginia, including all eight (8) doctoral universities, seven (7) four-year comprehensive institutions, and 24 community and two-year branch colleges (including Richard Bland College and the 23 community colleges of the Virginia Community College System).

● Private Nonprofit Institutions: From the beginning of the VIVA consortium, the libraries of the Commonwealth's publicly assisted higher education institutions have been joined by the majority of the private, nonprofit colleges and universities in the Commonwealth of Virginia. For many years, state funds have been matched by the private members to create the VIVA Private Pooled Funds and each year a subset (usually 30-32) of the private nonprofit institutions participate in the Pooled Funds Program. Using these funds, VIVA acquires resources for all participating private nonprofit colleges and universities.

● Other Research Institutions: The Library of Virginia is a full member in VIVA, participating in licenses relevant to their work at their facility in Richmond and as their local funds allow. In addition, there are five (5) research facilities included in VIVA. These facilities (e.g. The Institute for Advanced Learning and Research in South Boston and the Roanoke Higher Education Center) do not generate any additional annualized full-time equivalent (FTE) and are included in VIVA with the public institutions at no additional cost.

III. STATEMENT OF NEEDS

VIVA seeks information from an experienced Contractor(s) who can provide academic eBook collection(s) in key subjects of interest, which include the sciences (including health/medicine/nursing and computer science/information technology), the social sciences (broadly defined), business, and the arts and humanities (broadly defined), and which are of broad relevance across the VIVA institutions. Contractor(s) do not necessarily have to have subject strengths in each of these areas to respond to this RFI. Agreement preference will be given to vendors confirming eBook collections that allow whole-book lending through interlibrary loan and with no Digital Rights Management (DRM). Current frontlist titles are preferred.

Innovative acquisition models are welcome, including, but not limited to evidence-based acquisition (EBA), perpetual access, subscription, and open access models.

The response shall describe in detail how each of the following items are addressed by the proposed eBook collection(s).

A. Description of eBook Collections

1. Provide an executive summary of the proposed eBook collections.

2. Describe the eBook collections and include the following information: package options for the consortium, publisher/imprint coverage, subject coverage, and publication date coverage (including attention to whether or not the publication dates reflect new content or electronic publication dates of content previously published in print). Explicitly note the disposition of partner or subsidiary presses, if applicable.

3. Provide a title list that includes, as applicable, the ISBN, E-ISBN, Publication Title, Author, Publisher, Subject(s), LC Class, and Publication Year (delimited format preferred).

B. Rights and Permissions

1. Digital Rights Management (DRM): Understanding that DRM-free access to eBook content is a priority for VIVA institutions. Confirm that users can access and download eBook content, whether in whole or in part, without restrictions or limitations such as device and download limits, expiration dates, proprietary reader software requirements, or other technical controls that inhibit academic use of content. Confirm that owned eBooks can be loaned in their entirety. Describe any restrictions (e.g. platform or policy) that would hinder VIVA institutions’ abilities to access and loan content.

2. Simultaneous Access: Confirm and describe how users can access the eBook collections through unlimited simultaneous access or describe any restrictions (policy or platform) that would hinder VIVA institutions' ability to access collections in this manner.

3. Access: Describe how users can access eBook content without creating individual usernames or passwords. If optional user accounts are offered, they should not be required to access the system.

The primary means of access control will be IP authentication. Confirm that no content will be removed from the platform without prior notification. Describe under what circumstances content may be removed and detail the notification process, including timeline and method of communication.

4. Perpetual access: Can your product provide perpetual access for any purchased or licensed materials that were accessible or subscribed to during the term of the license? Does perpetual access match the level of access provided during an agreement term, or specify any technical limitations or restrictions?

5. Archival copy: Confirm that you have the capabilities to provide one DRM-free archival copy of the entire set of licensed materials, with the understanding that either party may engage the services of a third-party trusted archive and/or participate in collaborative archiving endeavors to ensure long-term access to this content, or describe any technical limitations for or restrictions on access to or creating an archival copy.

6. Local Digital Copy: Are there any restrictions on creating a local cached or backup digital copy of the eBook content or describe any restrictions on creating a local digital copy?

7. Remote and Walk-in Users: Confirm that you can provide a product that allows authorized users to access the eBook content regardless of their physical location (remote access users) and that patrons not affiliated with VIVA but who are physically present at members’ sites (walk-in users) may access the eBook content?

8. Interlibrary Loan: Confirm that libraries may lend entire, DRM-free eBooks through interlibrary loan through electronic transmission or paper means or describe any restrictions on how libraries may fulfill interlibrary loan requests, including restrictions on loan periods or amount of allowable content that can be loaned. Describe the specific mechanism that enables full eBook interlibrary loan.

Describe any additional software or system compatibility or agreements that directly support the interlibrary loan of eBooks.

9. Printing: Does your product have any restrictions for printing eBook content or describe any restrictions on the amount of content that a user may print in a single session?

10. Downloading: Confirm that your product has no restrictions for downloading eBook content or describe any restrictions on the amount of content that a user may download in a single session.

Specify the format(s) available for downloading content (e.g. DRM-free PDF, Adobe DRM PDF, EPUB, etc.). Does it also allow users to download individual chapters as well as the whole eBook and describe any limitations?

11. Emailing: Does your product have any restrictions for emailing eBook content or does it describe any restrictions on the amount of content that a user may email in a single session? Specify the format(s) available for emailing content (e.g. DRM-free PDF, Adobe DRM PDF, EPUB, etc.).

12. Text and Data Mining: Confirm that there are no restrictions on text or data mining eBook content, or describe any restrictions on text or data mining?

13. Artificial Intelligence: Confirm that any associated AI licensing terms will not restrict or curtail scholarly uses protected by applicable state or federal law, including existing copyright law? Are any add-on AI tools optional and able to be locally configured and administered?

14. Course Integration: Confirm that there are no restrictions on eBook content in the creation and use of course packs, electronic reserves, or learning management systems (e.g. Blackboard, Canvas), and confirm that there are no restrictions on creating multiple copies in print or digital form for classroom instruction or describe any restrictions on course integration? Describe any restrictions on providing persistent links in learning management systems for student use.

15. Describe measures in place to maintain user confidentiality and privacy in regard to the American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights: Privacy http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/privacy.cfm with respect to primary vendor and third-party software or services. Provide user privacy policy.

16. Who is responsible for maintaining legal copyright to all resources offered throughout the duration of a contractual relationship?

C. Technical Requirements

1. List all of the discovery tool products/providers with which you have partnerships to provide indexing of your eBook collections in their discovery tools, and detail the metadata components that are provided to each product/provider. State your willingness to work with discovery tool providers to create and maintain a single collection of titles representing the VIVA shared acquisition(s) that can be activated for access through the discovery tool products. Describe the ability to provide chapter-level records and links for discovery tools. Describe how quickly the discovery system holdings are updated to reflect additions, removals, or other content changes.

2. Does your product comply with the most current version of the OpenURL standard (ANSI/NISO Z39.88) and specify compatible OpenURL link resolvers?

3. MARC Record Support

a. Describe the ability to provide full bibliographic records in MARC format, including encoding levels available. Are MARC records able to be provided for the electronic versions of the eBooks? State whether the MARC records provided include OCLC numbers. Specify if open access titles are be noted in the MARC record. Describe how the MARC records are delivered.

b. Provide details on the level of MARC record customization that is available. Specifically state whether MARC records can be delivered with institution-specific proxy information included in title-level access links.

c. Provide a sample file of MARC records.

4. Provide a description of the user interface. Details should include functionality in the following areas:

a. Describe ability to link directly to content on the collection level, title level, and chapter/section level, including options for persistent linking.

b. Describe the options for customizing the default user interface, search mode, and display of search results at each of these levels: VIVA consortium, individual member institution, and user level.

c. Describe the appearance, adaptability, and available functionalities of the user interface in e-readers or mobile devices. Identify currently compatible and incompatible mobile devices and e-readers, and specify any additional (third-party or other) software or applications required for full mobile functionality. Explain how the system authorizes personal mobile devices for use with product content, if applicable.

d. Describe current usability testing support and procedures.

e. Describe existing usability issues and provide the plan and timeline for addressing them.

http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/privacy.cfm

5. The primary means of access control/authentication will be IP authentication. Detail the handling of access control including any special requirements for access through campus proxy servers.

Specify the standard authentication mechanisms (e.g. Proxy servers such as EZproxy, OpenAthens, LDAP, and Shibboleth) available to VIVA institutions for passing valid users to service. Describe how institutions can update IP addresses (e.g. administrative portal, IP Registry, etc.).

6. Describe technical support, including response time for service calls, and provide system uptime details for the previous 12 months.

7. Describe how your firm will work with library approval vendors as a way to track consortium eBook purchases in the same place as institution-specific eBook and print purchases to prevent unwanted title duplication.

8. Regarding accessibility, provide details of how control and use of the technology is readily achievable by non-visual means, including the following:

a. Describe product compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Web Accessibility Initiative’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA and the Virginia Information Technology Access Act, and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (29 U.S.C. 794d). Specifically note your support of assistive software or devices such as large print interfaces, screen reading software, text-to-speech output, voice-activated input, refreshable braille displays, and alternate keyboard or pointer interfaces, in a manner consistent with WCAG

2.1 AA.

b. Provide a current, accurate, completed Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR) to demonstrate compliance with the accessibility standards. If the product does not comply, a projected timeline for addressing accessibility issues should be provided and the Licensor shall adapt the Licensed Materials or platform in a timely manner and at no cost to the Licensee to comply with applicable law.

c. Describe current accessibility testing support and procedures (e.g., use of formal accessibility testing equipment, support personnel, selection and experience of people participating in testing, etc.).

d. Describe existing platform accessibility issues and provide the plan and timeline for addressing them. Describe remediation support for content residing on the platform that does not meet current ADA accessibility standards.

e. Nothing in this process shall limit the Licensee or any end user from making lawful uses to facilitate access to the Licensed Materials by users who have disabilities.

D. Usage Reports and Title Management

1. Describe your firm’s plan for providing VIVA-wide monthly usage by institution, by platform, by book title, and by section request for book titles, including, but not limited to, the following:

a. Describe the status of compliance with Project COUNTER and the NISO Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative (SUSHI) as well as commitment to maintaining compliance with current versions of these two standards as they are updated.

b. List all provided COUNTER 5.1 reports for eBook content and confirm that the consortium central office and institutions will be able to download these reports directly from the offeror's administrative website and via the SUSHI protocol.

c. Describe additional options for reporting usage, such as by subject, number of pages or chapters used within a single book in a single session, referring URL, or user actions such as printing, emailing, downloading, or saving.

2. Describe your firm’s plan for providing annual updates of book title lists, including ISBNs and access URLs in an electronic format (MS Excel or CSV preferred), suitable for sharing with VIVA members.

E. References

1. Provide references from other consortia-level customers, if available.

F. Trial Access and Product Clarifications

1. Offeror shall provide all VIVA institutions with the opportunity to test the eBook platform(s) with representative content via IP-authenticated access from date of proposal submission until the RFI process is complete.

a. Provide detailed instructions for institutions to gain access to trial platform(s).

b. Specify if the trial access is provided on a server other than the normal production server.

2. VIVA may request select offerors to attend face-to-face or virtual clarifications during June 8-9, 2026. Selected offerors will be given as much advance notice as possible; however, all offerors should maintain flexibility in scheduling during this week.

G. Onboarding

1. When working with a new partner, what is your typical timeline, from contract signature to go live for service initiation?

H. Offeror Data

1. Experience: Describe your experience in providing eBooks to academic libraries.

2. Longevity: Describe the length of time your firm has been actively engaged in providing eBooks to academic libraries.

3. Financial Disclosure: Provide full disclosure of financial statements for, at a minimum, the past three (3) business years.

4. Personnel:

a. Provide general descriptions of the educational background and experience of personnel with whom VIVA staff and member institutions will work with on a regular basis.

b. Specify the total number and general level of experience of professional librarians and/or other technical specialists employed.

c. Provide a specific representative (include name. title, direct contact information, and length of time with the firm) for the initial project and continued customer support and technical assistance during the term of the contract. Contractor shall be responsible for updating VIVA and JMU Procurement with any change in representatives.

I. Pricing Schedule

Provide a pricing schedule for each proposed eBook collection as outlined below, with the understanding that all participating VIVA libraries will share access to the same titles. Describe in detail the basis for all pricing, including one-time charges and recurring charges. Offerors should provide pricing for all public institutions as one (1) unit. Pricing for the private institutions should offer at least 2 options: a pricing option for opt-in participation by individual private nonprofit VIVA members, as well as further discounts if a major subset of the private institutions is able to participate.

A. Describe in detail your firm’s available content acquisition model(s) (e.g. EBA, perpetual access, subscription, and open access models).). For each model:

1. Describe the acquisition model and which eBook collection(s) may be acquired using this model.

2. Itemize the price offered and current list price of each complete collection, sub-collection, and individual title, if applicable. Indicate in the pricing what discounts are being offered to VIVA institutions by subscribing as a consortium rather than subscribing as individual institutions.

Present the pricing in the following ways:

a. Discounts available to the 39 public institutions (which shall include the Other Academic Research Institutions identified in Attachment A: VIVA Members, with the exception of the Library of Virginia, at no additional cost) if no other VIVA members (private nonprofit institutions or the Library of Virginia) participate.

b. Discounts available to each of the private nonprofit institutions if any of the private nonprofit institutions (listed on Attachment A: VIVA Members) participate in the purchase.

c. Deeper discounts specified for the 39 public institutions and participating private nonprofit institutions if a major subset of the private nonprofit institutions (listed on Attachment A:

VIVA Members) participates.

3. State clearly if there is a one-time or annual access fee for hosting consortium-owned content on firm’s platform.

4. Explain volume discounts for providing access to multiple resources and state opportunities for increasing volume discounts.

5. Confirm that all copyright fees shall be included within quoted prices.

6. Describe any open access content, or open access models, that publishing authors may participate in. Describe how any associated VIVA author chapter or book processing fees will be accounted for in VIVA pricing.

B. If the product is a frontlist purchase or subscription-based product, please specify:

1. The number of years the service will be provided at the initial price.

2. Confirm that the contract price(s) for subsequent renewal periods shall not exceed the contract price(s) of the previous period increased/decreased by more than the percentage increase/decrease of the other services category of the CPI-W section of the Consumer Price

Index of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics for the latest twelve months for which statistics are available or 3%, whichever is lower.

3. Specify possible arrangements for handling refunds (not credits) to individual institutions for canceling local eBook collection subscriptions.

C. Describe any other discounts or pricing benefits (e.g. discounts for print or individual title acquisition by member libraries) that would be made available to VIVA institutions for other resources.

D. Outline pricing for additional fees, if applicable:

1. Service upgrades, enhancements, additional content, etc., that may be added to the awarded contract.

2. MARC records or other metadata records.

3. Text or data mining permissions.

4. Artificial intelligence permissions.

5. Alumni access.

IV. RFI PREPARATION AND SUBMISSION

1. GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS:

a) Responses shall be signed by an authorized representative of the firm. All information requested should be submitted.

b) Responses should be prepared simply and economically, providing a straightforward, concise description of capabilities to satisfy the requirements of the RFI. Emphasis should be placed on completeness and clarity of content.

c) Responses should be organized in the order in which the requirements are presented in the RFI. All pages of the response should be numbered. Information that the offeror desires to present that does not fall within any of the requirements of the RFI should be inserted at the appropriate place or be attached at the end of the response and designated as additional material.

d) Each copy of the response should be bound or contained in a single volume where practical. All documentation submitted with the response should be contained in that single volume.

e) Ownership of all data, materials, and documentation originated and prepared for the State pursuant to the RFI shall belong exclusively to the State and be subject to public inspection in accordance with the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. Respondents shall clearly identify proprietary or trade secret material of their RFI response that shall not be subject to public disclosure in accordance with the Virginia Freedom of Information Act Section 2.2-4342F of the Code of Virginia.

f) Oral Presentation: Offerors who submit a response to this RFI may be asked to give an oral presentation of their submission to VIVA. This provides the offeror with an opportunity to clarify or elaborate on the proposal. VIVA & James Madison University will schedule the time and location of these presentations. Oral presentations are an option of the University and may or may not be conducted.

2. SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS:

Responses should be as thorough and detailed as possible so that James Madison University may understand your full capabilities and offerings in providing the service detailed within this RFI.

Responding firms shall submit the following items as a complete submission:

a) Return RFI cover sheet and all addenda acknowledgments, if any, signed and filled out as required.

b) A response to each item as described in Section III Statement of Needs of this Request for Information.

c) IDENTIFICATION OF SUBMISSION ENVELOPE: The signed submission should be returned in a separate envelope or package, sealed, and identified as follows:

From:

Name of Offeror Due Date Time

Street or Box Number RFI No.

City, State, Zip Code RFI Title

Name of Contract/Purchase Officer or Buyer

The envelope should be addressed to the issuing agency as directed on the cover page of this

RFI.

Attachment A: VIVA member institutions with FTE, February 2026

Public Doctoral Institutions 183,712

George Mason University 33,521

James Madison University 21,764

Old Dominion University 18,643

Radford University 6,804

University of Virginia 27,703

Virginia Commonwealth University 26,645

Virginia Tech 39,197

William & Mary 9,435

Public Four-Year Institutions 25,257

Christopher Newport University 4,386

Longwood University 4,078

Norfolk State University 5,453

University of Mary Washington 3,391

University of Virginia's College at Wise 1,634

Virginia Military Institute 1,736

Virginia State University 4,579

Public Two-Year Institutions 90,628

Richard Bland College (not part of the VCCS) 1,363

Blue Ridge Community College 2,194

Brightpoint Community College 4,928

Central Virginia Community College 2,135

Danville Community College 1,549

Eastern Shore Community College 446

Germanna Community College 4,931

J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College 4,987

Laurel Ridge Community College 3,517

Mountain Empire Community College 1,414

Mountain Gateway Community College 560

New River Community College 2,533

Northern Virginia Community College 29,720

Patrick & Henry Community College 1,453

Paul D. Camp Community College 721

Piedmont Virginia Community College 2,731

Rappahannock Community College 1,611

Southside Virginia Community College 1,997

Southwest Virginia Community College 1,721

Tidewater Community College 10,165

Virginia Highlands Community College 1,286

Virginia Peninsula Community College 3,723

Virginia Western Community College 3,521

Wytheville Community College 1,422

Private, Non-Profit Institutions 146,192

Appalachian College of Pharmacy 232

Appalachian School of Law* (2022-23 data) 152

Averett University 1,260

Bluefield University 975

Bridgewater College 1,449

Christendom College 638

Divine Mercy University 442

Eastern Mennonite University 1,039

Eastern Virginia Medical School (merged with ODU)

Edward Via Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine 1,389

Emory and Henry University 1,486

Ferrum College 825

Hampden-Sydney College 889

Hampton University 4,159

Hollins University 925

Liberty University 85,532

Mary Baldwin University 1,874

Marymount University 3,008

Randolph College 714

Randolph-Macon College 1,511

Regent University 8,288

Roanoke College 2,170

Shenandoah University 3,890

Southern Virginia University 920

Sweet Briar College 453

Union Presbyterian Seminary* (2021-22 data) 155

University of Lynchburg 2,763

University of Richmond 3,876

Virginia Union University 1,539

Virginia Wesleyan University 1,309

Washington & Lee University 2,259

Educational and Research Institutions (no FTE)

Institute for Advanced Learning and Research

Library of Virginia

New College Institute

Roanoke Higher Education Center

Southern Virginia Higher Education Center

Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center