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Information received will be considered solely for the purposes of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. Oral communications are not acceptable in response to this notice. A determination by the Government to compete this proposed contract based on responses to this notice is solely at the discretion of the Government. Responses are to be received within 5 days of this notice. No telephone calls are being accepted.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), National Agricultural Library (NAL) intends to negotiate and award on a sole source basis.  A purchase order will be for one (1) base year, awarded as a firm fixed price to the Financial Times.  The National Agricultural Library has a requirement to provide Premium continuous electronic access via IP authentication over the Internet to FT.com for all authorized USDA users. All USDA locations worldwide are to be considered authorized premises and USDA employees and contractors, cooperators and volunteers performing the work on behalf of USDA and acting within the scope of their relationship with USDA, as well as onsite visitors to the National Agricultural Library, are considered authorized users.

The publisher, the Financial Times, will make content available for delivery over the Internet.  The publisher shall make FT.com content accessible 24 hours per day. Authorized users will be granted access to FT.com through the IP recognition authentication process without any impediments, with rights to use content during the term of subscription.

The Financial Times is the sole manufacturer, copyright holder and licensor of the unique, proprietary content available through The Financial Times website. Third-party vendors may provide subscription services (managing administrative tasks such as renewal orders and invoicing) to this content, but the required content originates from The Financial Times Ltd, who is solely responsible for providing the level of access required for this enterprise-wide, IP authenticated service.