W74RDV11952172_PWS Digital Archive Oral History - Aug 2021.docx

Performance Work Statement Manage Digital Research Collection and Provide Oral History Support

1. General Description

The Office of History (CEHO) maintains a rich collection of documents, photographs, and oral history interviews that chronicle the history of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In the past, the majority of the material accessioned into the office’s Research Collection consisted of textual records—primarily documents, transcripts, photographs, and maps—that needed to be integrated into the office’s existing collection. Nowadays, the majority of its records are created and transmitted electronically. Moreover, in a bid to make its historical content available to a wider audience, the office is digitizing significant portions of its holdings.

The oral history collection consists of recently completed digital interviews and of legacy oral history interviews currently housed in CEHO’s oral history collection. The recently completed oral history interviews need to be processed and accessioned into CEHO’s digital collection and legacy oral history interviews need to be inventoried, processed, and accessioned. Further, transcripts in legacy formats dating back to the beginning 1980s need to be assessed and, if possible, converted.

Consequently, CEHO requires the services of a support Contractor to help the office manage and grow its Digital Research Collection (DRC) and to inventory, evaluate, process, and accession oral history interviews into its oral history collection.

2. Statement of Work

2.1. Manage Digital Research Collection

Managing and growing the DRC will require editing, appraising, organizing, and accessioning both “legacy data” (historic material digitized and accessioned into the DRC) and born digital content. The steps for augmenting and maintaining the DRC are outlined below.

Working closely with the CEHO staff, the Contractor will maintain the hierarchy and organization of the digital collection and, as necessary, refine the Windows Explorer file architecture and hierarchy as well as naming and numbering conventions for folders when adding new materials.

The Contractor will then assist CEHO identify, organize, and delete duplicates of born digital content pertaining to COVID-19 emergency operations, support to the 59th Presidential Inauguration, the South Pacific Border District, the Afghan Engineer District and the Gulf Region Division in Iraq, including a collection of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom leadership biographies, and smaller collections of archived digital materials and miscellaneous documents that need to be filed and then transitioned to the DRC The Contractor will work with the CEHO staff to refine a process plan and schedule to transfer digital content into the DRC. A key element of the process plan is establishing and implementing DRC security standards including who has access to the collection and what CEHO staff members are authorized to modify the digital research collections architecture of contents.

After the digital material has been accessioned into the DRC the Contractor will create a summary content list that describes the contents of the DRC. The content list should provide a brief statement addressing the provenance of the material in the DRC as well as the highlights and limitations of the collection.

2.2. Provide Oral History Support

The oral history component consists of two elements: 1) processing digital interviews that were recently completed; and 2) review, inventory, convert, and transfer legacy oral history currently housed in CEHO’s oral history collection.

For recently completed oral histories, the Contractor will process, arrange, evaluate, track, and accession interviews into its digital collection of oral history interviews. Those interviews include: approximately 40 interviews about Lock and Dam 52 and Lock and Dam 53 in Louisville District, 31 interviews on USACE’s support to establishing Alternate Care Facilities, 25 interviews about Task Force Barrier’s and South Pacific Border (SPB) District’s efforts to replace and build the border wall, 10 Career and End of Tour interviews (hereafter Career interviews), 9 interviews related to the Wilmington District, 4 interviews about the history of ACE-IT, 4 interviews about USACE Civil Works Transformation, 4 interviews dealing with USACE’s Natural Resources and Recreation Program, and approximately 5 interviews with participants in Task Force Essayons, and the Transatlantic Division’s Middle East and Transatlantic Afghanistan Districts. The Contractor will maintain and monitor an Interview Log Excel spreadsheet of recent oral history activities and the transcripts that are in various stages of the editing process. The Contractor will also produce, using Government furnished equipment and supplies, paper copies of all the edited digital transcripts accessioned into the collection. The transcripts, printed on acid free archival paper, will be foldered and boxed, using archival supplies provided by the government, and in accordance with the best archival practices. The Contractor will also update the finding aids for the interview collections to show the physical location of the transcripts.

Further, the Contractor will inventory and process more than 120 mostly older legacy digital interview transcripts and approximately legacy 160 digital audio files residing in CEHO’s digital collection of oral history interviews. All of the interviews are approximately an hour long. The Contractor will compare their contents to existing interviews in the collection and in the DRC to determine which of the interviews need to be transitioned to the DRC and which interviews are duplicates and can be deaccessioned. In the process, the Contractor will apply CEHO’s naming convention to transcripts and audio files to make them more accessible.

In addition, the Contractor will assess and, if possible, convert more than 150 transcripts in legacy digital formats dating back to the beginning 1980s and 15 microcassette tapes. The Contractor will also inventory and assess hundreds of images residing in the digital collection of oral history interviews and, in coordination with CEHO staff, determine their permanent location.

For all of the legacy interviews, the Contractor will also produce, using Government furnished equipment and supplies, paper copies of all the edited digital transcripts accessioned into the collection. The transcripts, printed on acid free archival paper, will be foldered and boxed, using archival supplies provided by the government, and in accordance with the best archival practices. The Contractor will also update the finding aids for the interview collections to show the physical location of the transcripts.

During the completion of this contract the Contractor will work closely with the Contracting Officer’s Representatives (COR), For the DRC portion of the contract, the Contractor will work with CEHO’s archivist and the COR for the Oral History work is Dr. Bianka Adams. The Contractor will prepare samples of the updated CEHO finding aid, Excel spreadsheet of the oral history collection, and scanned and converted oral history transcripts for review and approval before beginning on the final products outlined below.

3. Contractor qualifications and experience

1. Education. All personnel working on the subject contract must demonstrate that they have at least a master’s degree in history or a related subject and preferably knowledge of U.S. Army and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers history. They must also have at least one year of graduate course work in library information science and two years of experience in digital archival technology including developing document and metadata standards.

2. Technical Skills.

a. Contractors must also have five years of professional experience in scanning operations including: designing and implementing scanning criteria; designing and implementing quality control plans; and scanning a wide variety of material using professional, high-speed scanners.

b. Contractors must also have five years of experience editing oral history interviews which entails editing out obvious false starts and repetitive phrases such as “um” and “un-huh,” spelling out acronyms, and clarifying or correcting terminology with the goal of producing a faithful rendition of the content of the interview and the interviewee’s speech patterns, while at the same time producing a clear, concise, and readable document.

c. Managing archival collections.

d. Preparing finding aids.

e. Processing digital and paper oral history materials.

4. Final Products

All deliverables will be submitted to the government in writing in MS Word.

1. Updated process plan and schedule for transferring content into the DRC.

2. Refine security standards for the established collections.

3. A fully populated DRC in accordance with the PWS.

4. Quarterly summaries of the amount of material entered into the DRC

5. DRC summary content list.

6. A refined process plan for accessioning future content into the DRC.

7. List of collections/materials accessioned to the DRC.

8. Updated finding aids for Career, End of Tour, and Topical interviews such as USACE’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, SPB’s efforts to build the border barrier and to close down operations, the Wilmington District, the history of ACE-IT, the Corps’ Natural Resources and Recreation Program, and USACE units stationed in Kuwait such as Task Force Essayons and Transatlantic Afghanistan District.

9. Excel spreadsheets for each series of interviews containing the information specified in the statement of work.

10. Oral history transcripts imported digitally from external hard drive and legacy storage media and converted to searchable PDF.

11. Edited oral history transcripts.

12. Digital audio files, transcripts and supporting materials such as interviewer notes, articles, images, biographies foldered and accessioned to the DRC and paper print outs of transcripts and supporting documents foldered, boxed, and accessioned into CEHO’s oral history collection.

5. Schedule

1. Within five days of award, the Contractor will meet with the CORs at the Office of History, HQ, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to receive additional guidance. All telephone calls and meetings are considered part of the contract and no additional payment will be provided for participating in them.

2. Within 60 days of award the Contractor will produce an updated inventory of Career, End of Tour, and Topical interviews such USACE’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, SPB’s efforts to build the border barrier, the Los Angeles Update History, the Wilmington District, and USACE units stationed in Kuwait such as Task Force Essayons and Transatlantic Afghanistan District.

3. Within 120 days the Contractors will have reviewed the status of each interview and edit those interviews not already edited.

4. By the completion date of this order the Contractor will produce, using archival paper, copies of each interview. Those interviews will be accessioned into the oral history collection in accordance with the best archival practice.

5. Within 180 days of award the Contractor will complete a report listing the data identified for inclusion into the DRC; the process plan for the transfer of that content will include security standards governing access to the material.

6. Within 300 days of award the Contractor will complete moving the identified digital material into the DRC.

7. Within 330 days of award the Contractor will prepare a summary content list for the DRC, final Collections Statements, and establish procedures and a methodology for accessioning future material into the collection on a regular basis.

6. Period of Performance

All work under this contract is to be completed within twelve months of the date of award.

7. Location

The work will be completed at the CEHO facility at 7701 Telegraph Road, Alexandria, Virginia or via telework, as necessary and authorized.

8. Access to the Government Computer Network

The Contractor will be required to complete the required computer training and the necessary background screening to gain access to the government’s non-classified computer network as a condition completing this contract.

9. Equipment

The government will supply the Contractor a computer, access to the government’s computer network, and office space.

10. Use of Information

The Contractor will not release any of CEHO historic material or oral history interviews without the prior written consent of the Contracting Officer’s Representative.

11. Security Requirements

1. All Contractor employees, to include sub-contractor employees, requiring access to Army installations, facilities, controlled access areas, or require network access, shall complete AT Level I awareness training within 30 calendar days after contract start date or effective date of incorporation of this requirement into the contract, whichever is applicable. Upon request, the Contractor shall submit certificates of completion for each affected Contractor employee and sub-contractor employee, to the COR or to the contracting officer (if a COR is not assigned), within 5 calendar days after completion of training by all employees and sub-contractor personnel. AT Level I awareness training is available at the following website: https://jko.jten.mil/courses/atl1/launch.html; or it can be Provided by the RA ATO in presentation form which will be documented via memorandum

2. All Contractor and all associated sub-Contractors employees shall comply with applicable installation, facility and area commander installation/facility access and local security policies and procedures (provided by government representative). The Contractor shall also provide all information required for background checks or background investigation and to meet installation/facility access requirements to be accomplished by installation Provost Marshal Office, Director of Emergency Services or Security Office. Contractor workforce must comply with all personal identity verification requirements as directed by DOD, HQDA and/or local policy. In addition to the changes otherwise authorized by the changes clause of this contract, should the Force Protection Condition (FPCON) at any installation or facility change, the Government may require changes in Contractor security matters or processes.

3. The Contractor and all sub-Contractors employees will be issued a CAC only if duties involve one of the following: (1) Both physical access to a DoD facility and access, via logon, to DoD networks on-site or remotely; (2) Remote access, via logon, to a DoD network using DoD-approved remote access procedures; or (3) Physical access to multiple DoD facilities or multiple non-DoD federally controlled facilities on behalf of the DoD on a recurring basis for a period of 6 months or more. At the discretion of the sponsoring activity, an interim CAC may be issued based on a favorable review of the FBI fingerprint check and a successfully scheduled NACI at the Office of Personnel Management.

4. The Contractor and all associated sub-Contractors shall receive a brief/training (provided by the RA) on the local suspicious activity reporting program. This locally developed training will be used to inform employees of the types of behavior to watch for and instruct employees to report suspicious activity to the project manager, security representative or law enforcement entity. This training shall be completed within 30 calendar days of contract award and within 30 calendar days of new employees commencing performance with the results reported to the COR NLT 5 calendar days after the completion of the training.

5. All Contractor employees with access to a government info system must be registered in the Army Training Certification Tracking System (ATCTS) at commencement of services, and must successfully complete the DOD Information Assurance Awareness prior to access to the information systems and then annually thereafter in accordance with personnel security standards listed in AR 25-2 (Information Assurance), an appropriate background investigation will be conducted prior to accessing the government information systems.

6. All new Contractor employees will complete Level I OPSEC Training within 30 calendar days of their reporting for duty. Additionally, all Contractor employees must complete annual OPSEC awareness training. The Contractor shall submit certificates of completion for each affected Contractor and subcontractor employee, to the COR or to the contracting officer (if a COR is not assigned), within 5 calendar days after completion of training. OPSEC awareness training is available at the following websites: https://www.iad.gov/ioss/ or http://www.cdse.edu/catalog/operations-security.html; or it can be provided by the RA OPSEC Officer in presentation form which will be documented via memorandum.

7. All Contractor employees and associated sub-contractor employees must complete the DoD IA awareness training before issuance of network access and annually thereafter. All Contractor employees working IA/IT functions must comply with DoD and Army training requirements in DoDD 8570.01, DoD 8570.01-M and AR 25-2 within six months of employment.

8. All contract employees, including subcontractor employees who are not in possession of the appropriate security clearance or access privileges, will be escorted in areas where they may be exposed to classified and/or sensitive materials and/or sensitive or restricted areas.

9. The Contractor must pre-screen Candidates using the E-verify Program (https://www.e-verify.gov/) website to meet the established employment eligibility requirements. The Vendor must ensure that the Candidate has two valid forms of Government issued identification prior to enrollment to ensure the correct information is entered into the E-verify system. An initial list of verified/eligible Candidates must be provided to the COR no later than 3 business days after the initial contract award.

12. Local Security Policy

All Contractor employees who require physical access to government controlled facilities or logical access to government information and or information systems are subject to a fitness determination and appropriate vetting. To assist in the vetting process, the Contractor must submit a notice of visit form for each employee who will perform work on the contract, including at the minimum, the name, social security number and date of birth of each employee performing work on the contract that need physical and or logical access.

Documents containing personally identifiable information may only be submitted via encrypted email, by first class mail or it may be hand carried to the security office. Notice of visits must be submitted through the government contracting officer representative (COR) or technical representative who will deliver them to the security office. All notice of visits must be received three business days in advance of the Contractor reporting for work.

The Contractor will work through the COR or technical representative for the contract who will serve as the liaison between the security office and the Contractor. Contractor employees who are not sponsored by a government employee will not be granted access to any facilities under HECSA control nor will HECSA security approve logical access to information systems if a notice of visit containing either the DOD ID number or the social security number is not provided to the security office.

Contractor personnel who do not require a common access card may be granted physical access based on favorable results of an NCIC III records check. Contractors who need a common access card must have the minimum of a favorably adjudicated NACI. If no investigation is on file the CAC will not be issued until a favorable FBI fingerprints check is received by the security office and the NACI has been initiated in PSIP. HECSA Security will initiate all NACI investigations. Contractors who require access to classified information must be performing work on a classified contract and the contract company is responsible for initiating all required investigations for the appropriate security clearance.

If an employee has been the subject of a previous favorably adjudicated investigation, it may be reciprocally accepted if there has not been a two year break in service and there is no presence of new and potentially unfavorable information that casts doubt about the subject’s suitability. When a background check is reciprocally accepted but is more than 5 years old, the security office may initiate an NCIC III check to ensure no new unfavorable information exists.

Contractor employees whose access to classified information has been suspended or revoked will not be authorized logical access to government information systems IAW AR 25-2 paragraph 4-14 b (2) until that investigation is favorably adjudicated. These personnel will also not be allowed unescorted access to government facilities until the investigation has been favorably adjudicated by the Command Security Manager. OPM Final Credentialing Standards allow agencies to deny a CAC or PIV card to any individual who has had their access to classified information denied or revoked. Further due process is not required in these situations. The Contractor must provide employees who can be cleared to perform work and must immediately provide replacement employees for those who cannot be cleared.

13. Payments

Monthly progress payments are authorized.