B--Museum of Southwestern Biology, Completion of Natural History Integration

This Presolicitation Notice is to announce that the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is proposing to negotiate a contract with University of New Mexico, on a sole-source basis, for the completion of the integration of the USGS biological surveys collection with the Museum of Southwestern Biology (MSB) natural history collections. The USGS has concluded that these services are unique and only available from the University of New Mexico. The reasons justifying this lack of competition is based on the following description of specific qualifications the Government requires of the service to meet its minimum need, and the factors the Government will use to evaluate information submitted by firms in response to this Notice: The U.S. Geological Survey, Fort Collins Science Center requests award of a non-competitive procurement to Museum of Southwestern Biology located on the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico campus, for completion of the integration of the USGS biological surveys collection with the Museum of Southwestern Biology (MSB) natural history collections. The USGS Biological Surveys collection is housed within MSB, a controlled access locked facility. Access to the facility is controlled through specific permission and requires on-site staff presence at all times. More than 80% of all USGS specimens have been integrated with the MSB specimens through a collaborative effort of MSB personnel and USGS personnel. This integration includes not just the physical relocation of both USGS and MSB specimens to accommodate categorization and grouping based on standard taxonomic nomenclature, but also includes adding the USGS data into the MSB databases. This is not something that can be conducted by someone other than a designated MSB representative. The USGS biological surveys collection at the MSB, located on the University of New Mexico campus, Albuquerque, NM is a significant USGS collection of museum property containing natural history objects and comprises 95% of all USGS museum property. The USGS seeks to continue and finish the integration project. The collection is divided into four subdivisions: birds, fishes, amphibians and reptile, and mammals. Each of these subdivisions has some remaining work to be completed. In addition, the USGS has included cost for supplies in the form of cases, drawers and database support (pro-rated for our collection) to complete the work. This completion of museum integration will also involve conducting the annual random sample inventory for specimens held by USGS for the years 2013 and 2014. This annual inventory is both a DOI and USGS requirement. All work should be completed by August 30, 2014. In order to be responsive to this Notice, a firm must provide the appropriate capability statement for consideration by 06/26/2013. Responses that do not comply with these procedures will not be considered. Requests for information and subsequent responses may be emailed or mailed to the point-of-contact specified below. Firms are cautioned that this is not a solicitation. All costs associated with providing information as requested by this Notice shall be the responsibility of the responding firm.