Web Design and Production History of Medicine Exhibition Program

This is a Small Business Sources Sought notice. The NAICS code for this Small Business Sources Sought notice is: 541430. This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, or quotations. The purpose of this notice is to obtain information regarding: (1) the availability and capability of qualified small business sources; (2) whether they are small businesses; HUBZone small businesses; service-disabled, veteran-owned small businesses; 8(a) small businesses; veteran-owned small businesses; woman-owned small businesses; or small disadvantaged businesses; and (3) their size classification relative to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for the proposed acquisition. Your responses to the information requested will assist the Government in determining the appropriate acquisition method, including whether a set-aside is possible. An organization that is not considered a small business under the applicable NAICS code should not submit a response to this notice. All responsible sources may submit a capability statement which will be considered by the National Library of Medicine. This Sources Sought Notice is not a Request for Quotations (RFQ), nor is an RFQ available. Interested firms responding to this Sources Sought Notice must provide a capability statement that displays the following: (a) Microsoft Word or PDF file in 12 point font; (b) DUNS number, organization name, address, point of contact, and size and type of business (e.g., 8(a), HUBZone, etc) pursuant to the applicable NAICS code); (c) Technical and administrative points of contact, including names, titles, addresses, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail addresses; (d) Staff expertise, including their availability, experience, and formal and other training; (e) Current in-house capability and capacity to perform the work; (f) Prior completed projects of similar nature; (g) Corporate experience and management capability; and (h) Examples of prior completed Government contracts, references, and other related information. The capability statement should contain enough sufficient detail for the Government to make an informed decision regarding your capabilities; however, the statement should not exceed 6 pages (excluding attachments.) This sources sought notice requires capability statements to be submitted via eCPS.: 1) Electronic copy via the NLM electronic Contract Proposal Submission (eCPS) website at https://ecps.nih.gov/NLM. For directions on using eCPS, go to https://ecps.nih.gov/NLM/home/howto NOTE: To submit your electronic capability statement using eCPS, all offerors must have a valid NIH External Directory Account, which provides authentication and serves as a vehicle for secure transmission of documents and communication with the NLM. The NIH External Directory Account registration process may take up to 24 hours to become active. Submission of proposals by facsimile or e-mail is not accepted. All capability statements must be submitted electronically no later than 10:00am Eastern time on May 2nd, 2016 via the method indicated above. Disclaimer and Important Notes: This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in response. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization's qualifications to perform the work. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. After a review of the responses received, a pre-solicitation synopsis and solicitation may be published in Federal Business Opportunities. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation. Confidentiality: No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response. The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information in any resultant solicitation(s). -------------------------------------------- DRAFT Statement of Work for Web Design and Production Exhibition Program 1) INTRODUCTION The Exhibition Program at the National Library of Medicine produces content about the social and cultural history of science, medicine, and technology for audiences including experts, specialists, and the general public around the world. This content is transformed for audiences in multiple formats. For the Exhibition Program, the World Wide Web is a crucial platform in reaching National Library of Medicine customers. 1.1 BACKGROUND The Exhibition Program at the National Library of Medicine produces exhibitions about the social and cultural history of science, medicine, and technology for installation in the History of Medicine Division reading room and for the traveling exhibition service. The online adaption of these exhibitions include classroom education resources, activities, and Digital Galleries of digitized NLM collections. These websites are designed for diverse audiences including scholars, historians, scientists, families, educators, students, and the public at large. Exhibitions, and their online surrogates feature books, journals, photographs, and prints from the Library's collections, in addition to photographs of artifacts on loan from museums, other institutions or individuals; and images, and graphics, used with permission, from other institutions or individuals, or produced by the Library for the project. To find more information about the Exhibition Program and its portfolio of exhibition projects please go to the website. Background materials that are incorporated into this Statement of Work are: 1. Exhibition Program style guide for web templates (Attachments A and B) 2. National Library of Medicine technical requirements for web projects 3. Section 508 accessibility requirements All updates to these background materials made during the duration of this agreement become required. 1.2 SCOPE The Exhibition Program expects to raise awareness of the rich resources of the National Library of Medicine through the responsive online presentation of exhibition content, education resources, and digitization of curated collection materials known as Digital Galleries. Online exhibitions are viewed by tens of thousands of visitors per year from around the world. For a majority of visitors, the online experience is the only means by which they will engage with exhibition content. In addition, online exhibitions serve as an archive of projects created by the Exhibition Program since physical exhibitions are ephemeral in nature. 1.3 OBJECTIVES The objective of this procurement is to obtain professional creative services to develop the responsive online surrogates of the Exhibition Program's cultural and public history museum-quality exhibitions; online education resources for elementary, high-school, and college educators and students; and online experiences of digitized materials from the National Library of Medicine's collections known as Digital Galleries under the leadership of the Head of the Exhibition Program, with support from key staff, and web and IT colleagues. 2) REQUIREMENTS Web design and production services are required to create, code, and program interpretive, educational websites that allow diverse audiences with different learning styles to explore the content of cultural/history exhibitions, K-12 and higher education resources, digitized collection materials from the National Library of Medicine, and supporting information. These projects can be stand-alone websites or reflect and complement the design look and feel established by others. The Vendor will work cooperatively and creatively with the wider project team The Vendor will collaborate with the Exhibition Program staff, the wider creative team, and National Library of Medicine web and IT specialists to develop designs, codes, programs, and specifications for the architecture, structure, navigation, and programming of Exhibition Program websites. The Vendor will develop designs for review and approval by the Head of the Exhibition Program; program and code the site, delivering the files to the Library for https hosting; and work with Library web and IT staff to ensure integration with the Library's systems and infrastructure (ie: Quality Assurance). The Vendor will develop a design and production schedule that permits adequate engagement with Exhibition Program staff to review and inspect all aspects of the work to be performed, and coordinates with Library IT and web team requirements and collaboration Working with content provided by the Exhibition Program, the Vendor will create, prepare, and/or modify all documents, images, or other resources, as required for the website. This includes adapting some design elements for the web environment (ie: reformatting logos or graphic identities), sizing or cropping images to fit required formats, adapting existing formats or creating new elements, creating activities for delivering content that enhance visitor experience, and translating legacy websites into responsive design for mobile devices. The Vendor will present at least two design interpretations for each design task from which the Exhibition Program will determine creative direction. The Vendor will cascade the design approach across all web pages for approval prior to programming. The website feature known as Digital Gallery is developed by National Library of Medicine IT team as a dynamic database, currently using ColdFusion and may transition to Python / Django or a similar software during the duration of this agreement. The Vender will design and produce pages for the Digital Gallery that support this content delivery approach. The Exhibition Program expects to translate Templates A and B, and the Digital Gallery presentations, to be responsive to mobile devices during the duration of this agreement. New exhibition websites are nested within a larger TeamSite template sometimes referred to as a "wrapper," which serves as the Exhibition Program public facing website-referred to as the "Orange" site, which can be seen here. These new exhibition websites and the Exhibition Program "Orange" site are then fitted within the larger National Library of Medicine web presence, which can be seen here. The Web design and production Vendor must successfully consider the layers of presentation and requirements when creating a web experience on behalf of the Exhibition Program. All deliverables must be designed to function over the government https. Deliverables will function on TeamSite 7.5, the National Library of Medicine content management system and Digital Galleries, in the dynamic database environment. Vendor deliverables will be fully operational on Windows and Macintosh platforms; accessible with Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Linux operating systems backwards compatible for at least three generations. During the duration of this agreement, the Exhibition Program will transition and develop websites to be responsive to mobile devices. The Vendor will make any required adjustments to ensure that the site content is accurate and functions within the content management system and dynamic databases, and meets all technical requirements. TheVendor will work cooperatively and proactively with Library IT and web teams to integrate delivered website into NLM environment The National Library of Medicine will review, and accept or reject any suggestion by the Vendor for the use of third-party software, frameware, library, font or other tool, which may not be used by the Library. All Vendor deliverables will meet current W3C standards and all W3C standards that emerge during the lifetime of this agreement. The Vendor will prepare and deliver a closeout package that includes site wireframe, page designs, all elements related to the build-out/html pages for generating fully functional and accurate website in the NLM's TeamSite, any cropped or sized images, and any customized elements (ie: animations, online graphics, medical illustrations, web optimized logo files) associated with the project. A typical close out package would include folders for: CSS, Digital Gallery, Education Materials, EP Orange Site images, Fonts, HTML, Images, JavaScript, PSDs. The Vendor will update the Exhibition Program Wiki Template Style guide should any elements be altered or added with a new website or with the transition to responsive design. Vendors must furnish professional creative and technical services, as required in each task order under the purchase order, which may include, but are not limited to: web, interactive, and responsive design and development; user experience analysis, testing, and design (UX); digital analytics; marketing; illustration and animation; research, writing or editing related to content support; and digital file conversion. Final delivered work will meet all usability and accessibility reviews called out in Technical Requirements applicable at the time of the task award. In addition, final delivered work will adhere to relevant style guides applicable at the time of the task award. Final delivered work will be 100% error free in terms of technical performance. The final delivered close out package will be complete and will successfully archive the project This purchase order shall serve as the basic agreement against which individual task orders will be issued to Vendors. All materials produced under purchase order resulting from this RFQ will become the property of the National Library of Medicine under NLM (RC)-Rights in Data-Special Works (11-30-88). Technical Requirements The Web design and production Vendor shall adhere to all relevant accessibility, style, quality assurance, design guidelines and requirements applicable to producing websites for the National Library of Medicine including: • Accessibility - ensure that the website and all relevant digital files are compliant with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act for users with disabilities For more detail, please see Appendix 1 • Human factors - ensure that systems requiring human interaction are designed to be easy to operate, intuitive, and comfortable. For more information, click here. • Infrastructure - ensure that the website will successfully integrate with the Library's infrastructure, see the NLM Web Application/Site Development Guidelines, including all "Related Pages," and any future updates are incorporated into this purchase order. • DHHS Web policies and standards - ensure that the website is compliant with The Department of Health and Human Services Policies and Standards. Click here to visit their website. • All federal requirements, policies, and standards that emerge during the duration of this agreement will govern the performance of this agreement. • Examples of Exhibition Program Web Projects can be found at by clicking here.