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REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

FOR AN

INTEGRATED LIBRARY SYSTEM (ILS)

FOR THE

ILLINOIS HEARTLAND LIBRARY SYSTEM

August 2, 2011

Contact Persons:

*Due Date:

*Late proposals will not be accepted.

1.0 Introduction:

The Illinois Heartland Library System (IHLS, also referred to as “Library System”) is seeking ILS functionality and other information requested in this document, startup costs, and 5-year ongoing costs for a new Integrated Library System (ILS).  Customer reference checks, customer support ratings, 3rd party product integration experience with multiple vendors, vendor demonstrations and vendor discussions will all be a part of our process.

The Library System reserves the right to select the vendor it deems most suitable, which may or may not be the low bidder.

In the case that an individual question or requirement needs further explanation, include all explanations and clarifications in the response to this RFI.

Library System’s Timetable

Issue date of RFI: August 2, 2011

Receipt date of RFI responses: September 2, 2011 by 5:00 pm CST (Electronic submission in Word or PDF)

Vendor Selection:  Date not yet determined

(The Library System may request one or more vendors for on-site demonstrations)

1.2 Background Information

The Illinois Heartland Library System is a regional, multitype library system serving school, public, special, and academic libraries. This diversity of members brings a rich and full body of resources and experience from which all members benefit.

The Illinois Heartland Library System was formed on July 1, 2011 through the merger of four former regional library systems in southern Illinois: Lewis & Clark Library System (Edwardsville), Lincoln Trail Libraries System (Champaign), Rolling Prairie Library System (Decatur), and Shawnee Library System (Carterville).

Each of the four former systems had a consortium of automated libraries. These separate consortia are continued in the new organization. These automation groups are also known as Local Library System Automation Programs or LLSAPs. The LLSAPs are:

• GateNet (Edwardsville)
• LINC (Champaign)
• LLSAP (Decatur)
• SILNET (Carterville)

The primary source of funding for IHLS is through the office of the Illinois Secretary of State.  Illinois Heartland’s service area covers 28,141 square miles in 58 counties in central and southern Illinois with a population base of 2,226,275.

The Illinois Heartland Library System’s four automation groups include holdings from a total of 451 building (302 agency) member libraries.  Of those 451 buildings, 12 are academic libraries, 176 are public libraries, 93 are school libraries, and 21 are special libraries. We do expect to add additional libraries in the future.

The cornerstone of the Illinois Heartland Library System’s philosophy is that libraries of all sizes and types can benefit through cooperation and collaboration with one another. The primary role of the Illinois Heartland Library System staff is to facilitate and enhance that spirit of cooperation. The four systems which comprise the Illinois Heartland Library System have a historical commitment to resource-sharing and shared policies (where possible), as well as shared bibliographic and patron databases.  Holds management and centralized catalog records are core components of the consortium that will continue in the new organization.  The consortium members are OCLC Governing members and follow the state guidelines for OCLC-derived records in the system-shared catalog.

The selection of a new ILS will take many considerations into account.  With the creation of the Illinois Heartland Library System, we must consider how an ILS will be able to scale in the future (within the next 1-3 years) to accommodate a much larger consortium.

The four automation groups of the systems that formed IHLS are in discussion to choose a common ILS and eventually merge into one LLSAP.  The process of this merger will be that the four separate automation groups will migrate in a phased approach to a shared catalog. In this scenario, patron, item and bib level security are very important.  The ability to mask patron records from other organizations would be very important.  (i.e. public libraries would not see school or academic patron records).

It is also anticipated that the hardware/software currently housed in four separate buildings would be replaced by a co-location of hardware/software for the ILS at a central off-site location, perhaps not owned by IHLS, but secured and connected directly to a high bandwidth, redundant location.  The potential provider for this would be the Illinois Century Network Co-location site, which makes secure server space available to nonprofits in Illinois. Remote access to the servers at the co-location site must be set up to equal the same type of access as if equipment were on-hand. 

The IHLS automation group is also willing to consider cloud-based or software-as-service solutions, where servers and server software are hosted by the ILS vendor, as an option.

Mission Statement

The Illinois Heartland Library System is a community of multitype libraries developing partnerships and sharing resources in pursuit of excellent service.

Vision Statement

We envision a future where all libraries and information partners collaborate to provide accessible and innovative services. 

1.3 Current Automation

1.4 Flexibility of Contract Re-Assignment without Penalty

Given the economic situation in IL, IHLS may be forced to join another System, be renamed, or other scenario unforeseen. With this in mind, the Library System will want to insure that the finalized contract can be re-assigned to another party without penalty or additional cost. We realize that the Library System may incur services to move and/or merge data and perform other services, but the contract terms and conditions would remain in place.

1.5 How Can the ILS Vendor Help the Library System?

A library consortium of this magnitude does not presently exist. Given that this consortium will set a precedent in terms of the requirements of module functionality and database size, how can your company accommodate the needs of our unique organization?

1.6 Length of Commitment and Contract Term

Any contract and subsequent maintenance contract shall be renewed for one-year time periods.

Description of current Illinois Heartland Library System LLSAPs with both current statistics and 5 year estimates:

Given the above information from each of the separate LLSAPs, we anticipate that a potential fully shared ILS would have the following information:

2.0 Requirements

2.1 Partnership

IHLS desires to partner with a forward-thinking company and product that is well developed and fully featured. We are seeking an ILS that is developed for large consortia, has depth and flexibility in consortial borrowing policies, advanced reporting capabilities for each member library, advanced holds processing options and many Web 2.0 features for patrons including a Mobile PAC and text messaging. We also require large capacity and maximum granularity in areas such as circulation parameters, number of holdings attached to a single bibliographic record, agencies, locations, special codes, etc. Please share insights into how your product can address our desire to vault the Illinois Heartland Library System into a leadership ILS role within the State.

2.2 Response

Responses from vendors who are not able to meet the requirements listed in sections 3.4.1 and 3.4.2, either directly or through a 3rd party vendor, may not be considered.

2.3 Relational Database

Please note that a full relational database management system is required and not a limiting Embedded Oracle, proprietary database or other. IHLS wants full and unrestricted access to the database. Please describe what database and version you are recommending and if there are any costs associated with accessing the full database schema. The vendor must be able to warrant performance and response times with its solution.

2.4 Additional Libraries

IHLS would like the option to add additional libraries in the future. Please share your licensing methodology and if additional costs would apply to add new libraries.

2.5 Training

Due to the large geographic region we serve, the Library System desires a combination of on-site, train-the-trainer, and web-based training.  Please discuss your company’s willingness to craft an affordable but effective training plan that will meet the needs of IHLS staff members, as well as its member libraries.

2.6 Mobile Platform and Text Messaging

IHLS is interested in delivering a Mobile PAC and as such, would prefer a browser-based solution to that of an iPhone or Droid-only app. Please describe your mobile platform, carriers and smart phones supported. IHLS is interested in issuing notifications via text messaging, and/or being able to send patrons specific messaging.

2.7 Digital Collections

Some of the IHLS member libraries have an interest in digitizing their collections. While cost is a factor, IHLS would like to know what the vendor can provide to integrate digital collections into the ILS. Is a separate server required? Can the patron search both the digital collections and bibliographic database at the same time? Please describe and include pricing in the Additional Functionality section.

2.8 Inventory Control

IHLS is looking to offer its member libraries an affordable and more elegant way in which to perform an inventory and weed their collections. Please discuss what options exist.

2.9 Report Functionality

One of the major improvements IHLS requires is improved reporting at the member library level. We want the ability for each member library to create and run their own reports, at any time of the day without affecting the overall circulation and PAC performance. Please describe your reporting functionality and how it will address this need. 

2.10 Automated Authorities

Currently, authority control is achieved through different methods by each automation group. Some utilize third-party vendors, while others use an internal process. We would like to be able to download authority records from OCLC any time we downloaded bibliographic records. If there is any update service that would automatically update existing authority records without manual intervention, we’d be interested in learning more. Please provide any costs if you have such a service.

2.11 SIP2/NCIP Licenses

Currently, the Library System has numerous SIP2 licenses in use and we foresee many more of our member libraries requiring additional licenses in the future. IHLS would be interested in a site license for SIP2/NCIP licenses, plus any associated maintenance costs.

2.12 Self-Check Interface and Self-Check Stations

Some IHLS member libraries currently have self-check units. We’d be interested to know what a site license would cost, as this is an area of growth for our member libraries. Please list pricing under Additional Functionality. Include RFID options.

2.13 URL Checker for Bibliographic Records and/or local web servers

A growing number of our member libraries are beginning to add URLs to 856 tags and we are looking for a semi-automated solution to help manage these links. Please discuss any options your company provides and how this functionality works.

2.14 Remote Patron Authentication

IHLS requires remote patron authentication to allow patrons to login once, and be able to search 3^rd party databases, link to Virtual Reference, Evanced Solutions, Overdrive and/or other products. Please include a site license and maintenance costs.

2.15 Vendor Recommended Min/Max Staff PC Workstation

Please describe the minimum and recommended PC/Mac/Linux configuration for staff clients. Please indicate if your product supports Windows Vista and Windows 7 and if there are any known issues with any OS.  Can the client be run on a web browser and which borrowers are compatible?

What is the process for upgrading the staff client in a non-Windows domain environment?

2.16 Custom Programming and Feature Requests

Please explain the process for requesting custom programming and features as we become aware of them.  Are these enhancements able to be incorporated into the customer’s running software or must they wait until the next major release of the software?

2.17 Interlibrary Loan (ILL) Functionality across the four LLSAPs

Until the four IHLS LLSAPs adopt the same platform and have a shared database, please describe additional ILS or 3rd party products that could be utilized to allow interlibrary loan requests and fills to happen automatically across those separate databases.

2.18 Electronic Resource Management

IHLS would like the ability to manage individual library and consortial e-resource purchases and e-resource workflows including acquisitions, copyright management, usage, cost, access, and administrative data.

2.19 Identity management

IHLS would like the ability to interface with campus or school authentication/authorization systems and manage multiple roles and affiliations (patrons associated with multiple institutions).

2.20 Access to data and system function

IHLS would like the ability to innovate via APIs, web services, etc. including compliance with standards.

3.0 Vendor to Provide Costs on the Following:

IHLS is interested in implementing the new ILS in a VMware environment. Please discuss your company’s position on support of your ILS within a VMware environment. The VMware environment will include vMotion and vSphere.

3.1 Hardware

Provide technical requirements for servers (Production, PAC, Enterprise Search (for faceted searching and relevancy ranking, report writers, digital collections, terminal servers, etc.) that will easily manage the 5-year growth projections.  Please provide a description, role, and specifications of each proposed server.  The Library System is also interested in portable inventory devices that can be shared among member libraries. IHLS reserves the right to procure the hardware from other sources, without penalty from the ILS vendor. Since VMware is being proposed, several of these servers may be running on one physical machine.

Provide costs and specifications for a training server - include all third-party software for database including full Oracle, SQL Server (or other), client-access and 5-year on-site warranty.

3.2 Hosted Solution

Please provide full specifications and recommendations for a hosted hardware solution/Software as a Service (SaaS), from your company.  This should include startup costs and annual costs for the next 5 years.  Please use a duplicate cost template (provided) to show costs of the SaaS environment. 

3.3 Operating System and Database

●      Windows Server 64-bit or Linux RHEL

●      Oracle, Microsoft's SQL Server 2008 RS, MySQL, or other SQL-based database

3.4 Vendor Software

3.4.1 Required Functionality

Please complete the table below to indicate if your product can fulfill the requirement. Include applicable comments.

3.4.2 Additional Functionality

The requirements listed below do not need to be fully implemented at the time of initial migration, but need to be available by the time all LLSAPs have joined the database.

Please complete the table below to indicate if your product can fulfill the requirement. Include applicable comments.

3.4.3 Other

Please provide costs for implementation, on-site training (for train-the-trainer) and data migration (to include bibliographic, authority (if applicable), item, patron, and circulation transactions). At minimum, IHLS requires two data pulls from each current ILS product.  What other data pulls will be needed?

The Illinois Heartland Library System prefers to be trained on its own data and not a vendor demo database.

3.5 Warranty Period

Please state the warranty period for the software (90 days, one year, etc.) before software maintenance applies.

3.6 Pricing Scenarios

Scenario 1 - Local hosting of servers

Scenario 2 - SaaS environment

Pricing Sheet 

**Please fill this form out for each possible option you propose from the above information. 

**Quote physical hardware and SaaS on separate quotations.

Additional Functionality Costs