Terms of Reference/specifications - National Library

Returnable Documents:

2.1. NLSA seeks to appoint a suitably qualified service provider to supply and render an Integrated Library Management System for a five-year period. The system should be able to handle large volumes of bibliographic records, user information, transaction data, and more. 2.2. The solution must provide full support for secure and standards-based API integration to enable interoperability with existing organisational systems, applications, and third-party platforms. The system must include well-documented Representational State Transfer RESTful or equivalent Application Programming Interface APIs that allow seamless data exchange, automated workflows, system-to- system communication, and real-time synchronisation. The API framework must support authentication, authorisation, encryption, and audit logging to ensure compliance with the organisation’s security and governance requirements. The solution must be designed to integrate with current and future systems without requiring custom development that could limit scalability or upgradeability. 2.3. The solution must support strong encryption mechanisms (such as AES-256 for data at rest and TLS 1.2+ for data in transit). Encryption keys must be securely managed, regularly rotated, and protected from unauthorised access. No solution may store or transmit unencrypted sensitive or confidential information. of 16 2.4. The solution must include or support an AI-powered search capability that enables advanced discovery, retrieval, and analysis of organisational information. 2.5. The solution must provide or support chatbot capabilities that enable automated, intelligent, and user- friendly interactions across digital platforms. The chatbot must leverage natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning to understand user queries, provide accurate responses, guide users through processes, and escalate complex issues to human support channels when necessary. Chatbot functionality must include: 2.5.1. 24/7 self-service support for common queries 2.5.2. Integration with organisational systems through secure APIs 2.5.3. Ability to access and retrieve information from approved data sources 2.5.4. Multi-language support, including local languages where required 2.5.5. Context-aware conversation flows and adaptive learning to improve accuracy over time 2.5.6. Compliance with data protection, privacy, and security standards 2.5.7. Audit logging and reporting of interactions for monitoring and improvement 3. NLSA’S RIGHTS 3.1. The NLSA is entitled to amend any tender conditions, tender validity period, tender terms of reference, or extend the tender’s closing date, all before the tender closing date. All Bidders, to whom the Bid documents have been issued and where the NLSA have record of such Bidders, may be advised in writing of such amendments in good time and any such changes will also be posted on the NLSA’s website under the relevant Bid information. All prospective Bidders must, therefore, ensure that they visit the website regularly and before they submit their Bid response to ensure that they are kept updated on any amendments in this regard. 4. DURATION OF THE PROJECT 4.1. The duration of the contract is FIVE YEARS. The appointed service provider(s) shall make an undertaking that the turnaround time to supply and deliver is within 90 days, unless specified otherwise or agreed in the Service Level Agreement (SLA). of 16 5. CONDITIONS OF THE BID 5.1. The NLSA reserves the right not to accept the lowest proposal. 5.2. The NLSA reserves the right to appoint one or more Bidders. 5.3. The NLSA reserves the right not to award the contract. 5.4. The NLSA reserves the right to have any documentation, submitted by the successful Bidder checked or inspected by any other person or organisation. 5.5. The General Conditions of Contract will be applicable to this Bid. 5.6. The NLSA will not be held responsible for any costs incurred by the Bidder in the preparation and submission of the Bid. 5.7. The Bidder may be required to prepare for a presentation, and the Bidder shall be notified thereof in good time before the actual presentation date. Such a presentation may include a practical demonstration of products or services as called for in this Bid. 5.8. No upfront Payment will be done by NLSA. 5.9. The bid is valid for a period of 90 days and may be extended at the discretion of the NLSA. 6. EVALUATION CRITERIA 6.1 Pre evaluation (standard bid documents) 6.1.1 Fully Completed SBD 1, SBD 4,SBD 3.1, SBD 4, SBD 6.1, SBD 7.2 and SBD 9 forms. 6.1.2 The bidder must be registered on the Central Supplier Database (CSD). 6..2 Mandatory technical criteria Please tick yes if the proposed solution offers the following: No Item Description Details Available (Yes/No) 1 System Requirements 1.1 Operating system Windows and Mac OS 1.2 Database support Whether it’s a relational database like MySQL or PostgreSQL or a NoSQL database, the system should be able to handle large volumes of data and scale as the library grows. 1.3 Architecture Software-As-A-Service (SaaS) solution supported by API of 16 Support multiple browsers, e.g. Microsoft Windows Browser (Edge, Chrome, Firefox and Safari) Mobile compliant either via web interface or app discovery 1.4 Security features Security features to handle sensitive data, transaction history and prevent unauthorized access Data encryption 1.5 Security of digital content IP protected to prevent abuse of intellectual property 1.6 Backup and data recovery Cloud storage solution plan Disaster recovery mechanism Automatic and real time updates 1.7 User access control Authentication methods for role- based user access: · Administrators · Management · Librarians · General users · Public 1.8 Accessibility · Remote access · Adhere to web accessibility standards (include people living with disabilities) · Collaborative tools to improve workflow efficiencies · Accessible on mobile platforms 1.9 Integration and Compatible with assistive compatibility technologies, e.g. digitization, web harvesting, ISBN management systems, etc. Ability to integrate with other enterprise and third party systems 1.10 Scalability The system should be able to handle a growing number of items (collections), different formats, users, and transactions without performance degradation Adapt to technological development 1.11 Reliability and Must have an uptime and performance availability of 99,5% measured on monthly basis, excluding downtime for planned maintenance 2. Discovery 2.1 Discovery interface and Discovery app with responsive customisation design, full branding and local customization without vendor of 16 intervention and support for multilingual interfaces. User friendly, accessible across devises. 2.2 Unified search & metadata Single search across all content types (catalogue, e-resources, IR, research data), enriched metadata: TOC, book covers, abstracts, FRBR clustering and deduplication, full MARC and RDA support. Correct display of non-Roman scripts and diacritics. 2.3 Search & filtering Basic and advanced search, faceted navigation and multiple filters (branch, format, date, availability). Weighting to provide for local holdings preference. Sort by date, relevancy ranking, author and title etc. Indicate ways to sort. Spellcheck, suggestions, peer- reviewed/full-text filters, Publication Finder and ability to limit by format (e.g. books, journals, etc). Indicate formats to limit by. 2.4 Patron services Batch updates from manual entry, allow for multiple addresses, unlimited patron types, search by multiple fields, notes, blocks, history retention, privacy options. Allow notes to be entered which will pop-up when patron records are opened. Must automatically add e.g. the name of the staff member who created the note. Allow a report per staff member with notes created. 2.6 Integration with other Integration with acquisitions systems (PDA/DDA), circulation (already in 3.4), LibGuides. Display all serial formats, Integration with Institutional Repository 2.7 Performance & UX The system should cater for enhancement persistent links, clustering (already in 3.2), authorship RDA relationships for quick new search of each name, staff MARC view, optimized recall/precision, fully responsive design for mobile and desktop. 2.9 Usage statistics The system should provide extensive usage statistics with graphs and downloadable and customizable reports. of 16 2.10 Chatbot The system should cater for chatbots 2.11 AI and future readiness AI driven predictive search and personalization. Continuous update to integrate new emerging technologies 2.12 Compliance standards Vendor must adhere to: NISO standards (Open Discovery Initiative, KBART), MARC21, RDA, Dublin Core for metadata, COUNTER and SUSHI for usage stats, Linked data and BIBFRAME for interoperability. 2.13 Software compliance RESTful APIs, microservices practices architecture, regular security patches and feature updates, Open APIs for third-party integrations. 3. Access Management 3.1 Use access User access Should be able to filter, check management functionalities availability, provide real time information on the status of an item Allow for notification, e.g. long overdue notices and new items available based on user behaviour Communication and interaction with users including, AI Library Assistant (chatbot) Real time analytics of users’ information use trends The system must provide configurable automation for end-to- end processing of requests. This includes routing tasks to appropriate staff, sending automated notifications to patrons, managing approvals, and tracking task completion for all request types, including interlibrary loans and deliveries. Requesting of catalogue (print) items by taking the following into consideration: Users will place a request on an item in the discovery system. Billing functionality Booking functionality for library resources 3.2 Administrator funtionalities User & Role Management. Create, edit, deactivate, and delete user accounts.Assign and manage user roles, permissions, and access rights Enforce multi-factor authentication (MFA) and password policies of 16 System Configuration Configure system settings, workflows, automation rules, and organisational preferences Manage integrations, API settings, and connectivity to other systems Customise templates, forms, dashboards, and metadata fields Security & Compliance Management Manage encryption settings, data protections, and security controls Monitor user activity logs and audit trails Apply and enforce data retention policies and compliance standards Content & Data Management Upload, update, archive, or delete records or content in accordance with roles Oversee storage usage, version control, and data integrity Manage backups, restoration processes, and data migration System Monitoring & Reporting Access system health monitoring tools (performance, uptime, capacity) Generate and export administrative and operational reports Track errors, performance issues, and system notifications Support & Maintenance Tools Manage updates, patches, and system upgrades Configure notifications and alerts for system events Provide administrative override capabilities for resolving user issues Audit & Governance Full audit trail visibility for all administrator and user activities Tools for monitoring compliance with organisational ICT policies Ability to produce reports for audit, governance, and risk management of 16 3.3 Inte Library ILL Integration ILL module with ISO 10160/10161 Loan compliance for peer-to-peer management resource sharing and OCLC ILL Protocol compatibility (e.g., WorldShare ILL standards for interoperability and resource sharing). LMS should be compliant with OCLC Tipasa. ILL bibliographic records to be suppressed on bibliographic and item level. 3.4 Request management Centralised dashboard for all patron requests 3.5 Automated notifications Automated notifications 3.6 Fines and holds Configurable fine rules by patron management type and item category 3.7 Workflow automation The system must provide configurable automation for end-to- end processing of requests. This includes routing tasks to appropriate staff, sending automated notifications to patrons, managing approvals, and tracking task completion for all request types, including interlibrary loans and deliveries. Requesting of catalogue (print) items by taking the following into consideration: Users will place a request on an item in the discovery system. 4. Resource Management – e-resources 4.1 Digital repository . Platform to ingest digital (Trustworthy) publications · Ingest web files on WAC format · Enable validation of ingested files · Enable metadata creation 4.2 Digitisation repository · Digitization repository that is able to display metadata together with images attached to it · Link related digital objects and metadata (families) · Allow for quality control and approval before publication · Discoverable to the end users 4.3 Open access content · Platform to harvest open access resources • Discoverable 5. Resource Management – Acquisition 5.1 Procurement of Budget management functionality monographs, manuscripts etc. of 16 Manage ordering process including order creation, revie and approval of orders Management of order cancelations Vendor management 5.2 Manage subscriptions Contract management of subscriptions (notifications) 6. Resource Management – Legal deposit 6.1 Link with publisher Ability to ingest records from third systems party platforms such as ONIX 6.2 Metadata information Enable creation of brief record for internal use Generate reports with audit trail including date received, person who received the item and the basic bibliographic information (ISB, Title, Author, Publisher, date and place of publication) 7. Metadata Management 7.1 Bibliographic control Compliance with MARC21, Dublin Core, VRA, EAD and ISAD(G) Bibframe AACR and RDA Z39.50 standards Support metadata formats associated with different collection formats Ability to import and export bibliographic records to and from MARC 21 Formats and Web OPAC Allow integration including downloading and uploading records to the World Catalogue 7.2 Authority control Support authority control and handle linked open data, Semantic Web technologies etc. 7.3 Item-level description Capacity to describe and link records of varying granularity or objects with complex & hierarchical relationships 7.4 Barcodes Read and process both 13/14 digit barcodes 7.5 Digital resources Linking to external databases for integration the cataloguing of e-books and online journals 7.6 Multi-Lingual and Unicode Ability to catalogue and display support records in multiple languages. Full Unicode support for international character sets and diacritics. 7.7 Classification and indexing Integration with classification Web Plus accessed from within the of 16 system. Integration with subject indexing-controlled vocabulary - Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) 7.8 User integration and Seamless integration with other interoperability modules, e.g. acquisitions and circulation. API support for third- party systems and data exchange. Real-time updates across modules to maintain data integrity. Integration with MarcEditor. 7.9 Reporting Ability to generate cataloguing statistics and extract auditable information from bibliographic, order and items records, either individually or in combination. Ability to select specific fields from bibliographic, order and items records, and export the data in various formats such as Excel, CSV and others. 8. Serials management 8.1 Serials administration Receive issues Create prediction patten Missing issues – report/notice (Display/notification) Ability to handle management both print and electronic serials 9. Collections management 9.1 Asset management · Accommodate GRAP 103 & 17 fields · Stock taking functionality 9.2 Manage movement of Allow for assignment of location collections between codes when collections are in departments transit between departments 9.3 Collection disposal Enable withdrawal of collections for disposal and notes for the reason for disposal 10 Administration and analytics 10.1 Reports Robust reporting capabilities. Generate various statical and reports Intelligent analytics – user trends, new books information Auditable transaction Record integrity and authenticity Reports should be downloadable in different formats include Excel/csv Gathering and preparing data from various sources to prepare it for analysis. Converting raw data into meaningful insights that can be of 16 used to make strategic business decisions, monitor performance, and identify opportunities Presenting the analyzed data through charts, graphs, maps, and interactive dashboards to make it easier to understand. 11. Support & Maintenance 11.1 Dedicated personnel to To manage migration (if required) – manage onboarding piloting, testing and ensuring data integrity 11.2 Ongoing support Onsite and remote support 11.3 Training and tutorials Training of all staff (65) including systems administrator (2) and technical support staff Online manuals, guides, training/webinars Maintenance and upgrades 11.4 Communicating new Listserve – communicate new developments system requires Only bidders who are fully responsive to the mandatory requirements in 6.1, will be considered for the functionality evaluation. 6.3 Functional criteria of 16 No Element 0 1 2 3 4 5 Weighted Technical 100 1. Bidders Experience 30 • Provide traceable references for similar work at a large institution such as a library or academic institution, in the past five years • Reference letters should be on a client letterhead, • Letters should include the following details: Client, the value of the project, work completed, date, and duration of the project Points allocated as follows: 1) 30 points = 3 contactable references with all the above requirements met 2) 20 points = 2 contactable references with all the above requirements met 3) 10 points = 1 contactable reference with all the above requirements met 4) 0 points = no contactable references with all the above requirements met 2 Team leader experience in implementing and 10 managing an Integrated Library Management System experience. Provide CV of project team leader demonstrating relevant experience (including role played in a similar project, number of years) Points are allocated as follows: 1) More than 10 years = 10 points 2) 5 to 9 years = 5 points 3) Less than five years = 0 points of 16 3 Project plan 20 Provide a detailed proposal indicating the following: • Onboarding approach or implementation process to be followed • Organogram on project team allocation • Define roles and responsibilities for each team member • Detailed schedule demonstrating rollout plan starting from 30th June 2026 • Contingency plan for unforeseeable circumstances or Risk management plan including migration • Communication plan Points allocated as follows: 1) Proposal meeting all 6 above requirements fully met = 20 points 2) Proposal meeting 4-5 requirements fully met = 15 points 3) Proposal meeting 2-3 requirements = 10 points 4) Proposal meeting requirements = 5 points 5) Proposal meeting none of the 6 requirements = 4 Presentation demonstrating the following: 20 • Library user facing functionality • Workflows, including acquisition & cataloguing • Administration functions including a sample of reports and analytics available • System intelligence (AI integration) Points allocated as follows: 1) All 4 aspects fully addressed = 20 points 2) 3 aspects fully addressed = 15 points 3) 2 Aspect fully addressed = 10 points 4) 1 Aspect fully addressed = 5 points 5) None of the aspects addressed in full = 0 point Total 100 Minimum points to pass this evaluation stage 70 NB: If there are any materials omission on the stated SBDs, bidders will be afforded a maximum of 2 working days to respond to the omission. of 16 7. SUBMISSION FORMAT Bid proposals should be submitted in the format as indicated below: NB! One (1) signed original Bid document and One (1) signed electronic copy on a USB or CD (PDF protected with a code). Bidders will be evaluated in two stages. First stage will be the technical evaluation and the second stage will be the price evaluation. 8.Evaluation Criteria Stage 3: Pricing NB: Add yearly escalation of unit price per item over five-year period (see example below) Item Description Unit price Unit price year Unit price Unit price Unit price year two year three year year one four five Total Inclusive of VAT 9. Preference Point System In terms of Regulation 5 of the Preferential Procurement Regulations of 2022/23, Gazette Number 47452 dated 4 November 2022 pertaining to the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act, 2000 (Act ), responsive bids will be adjudicated by the State on the 80/20-preference point in terms of which points are awarded to bidders based on: - • The bid price (maximum 80 points) • Specific Goals (maximum of 20 points): The following formula will be used to calculate the points out of 80 for price in respect of an invitation for a tender, inclusive of all applicable taxes. of 16 10. Company ownership • Specific Goals (maximum of 20 points): - Specific Goals Points 100% owned by people with disability 100% owned by people with disability - 10 points Less than 100% owned by people with disability - 5 points. 100% owned by youth 100% owned by youth - 10 points Less than 100% owned by youth - 5 points. NB. Submit certified sworn affidavit or BEE certificate as evidence

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