Library, archives, museums and other cultural services

Tender description

The contracting authority is seeking to procure an e-books and e-audio books Service as part of our existing online Kirklees Library Services. The Kirklees Library Service currently operates 24 libraries and a home library service covering a population of 422 458 and the contracting authority wishes to continue, with no break in service, providing an e-book offer, including an e-audiobook service. The contracting authority anticipates that one economic operator will be able to provide both elements from a single platform. E-books will be borrowed virtually by library members and read/listened to on the widest possible range of players and mobile devices. The Service will offer a wide range of items through a customer friendly, easy to navigate portal and format, providing after sales support to both library staff and customers. The contracting authority is seeking to procure an e-books and e-audio books Service as part of our existing online Kirklees Library Services. The Kirklees Library Service currently operates 24 libraries and a home library service covering a population of 422 458 and the contracting authority wishes to continue, with no break in service, providing an e-book offer, including an e-audiobook service. The contracting authority anticipates that one economic operator will be able to provide both elements from a single platform. The contracting authority is seeking to retain and expand its customer base for its e-book and e-audio service. The current customer base ranges from children to adults of all ages. With potential cuts to our physical library resources, the contracting authority seeks to encourage uptake of this Service to an even wider audience. E-books will be borrowed virtually by library members and read/listened to on the widest possible range of players and mobile devices. The Service will offer a wide range of items through a customer friendly, easy to navigate portal and format, providing after sales support to both library staff and customers. Stock provided should reflect a wide range of available titles for our customers in the categories listed below, with a balance of titles between front and backlist and in both formats: — Adult Fiction; — Adult Non-Fiction; — Young Adult; — Children's. The catalogue should have at least approximately 250 000 e-books and at least approximately 5000 e-audiobook titles available, excluding titles from free sites such as (but not strictly limited to) Project Gutenberg and other titles available in the Public Domain. The offering must include a wide selection of UK Publishers and titles at any one time. The proposed platform must be intuitive with easy to navigate tools alongside easy access to customer service. The system must have a seamless integration into the Council's current Library Management System (LMS) and catalogue for user authentication. We require an interface in real time with our LMS to authenticate borrowers. The e-book and e-audiobook provision should be designed to be compatible with any library management system. The Council currently uses Symphony LMS provided by Sirsi Dynix but this may change so compatibility with all systems is required. The provision is to use borrower number and PIN generated by Symphony for e-book account authentication. The e-books and e-audiobooks service availability should reflect the availability of the LMS. E-book and/or e-audiobooks shall be available for all of the following operating systems, at minimum: — Android OS Version 4.4 or above, — Microsoft Windows Version 7 or above, — Apple iOS Version 8.0 or above, and/or — any other additional operating systems to be stated on the Supplier's Submission Document. The e-book/e-audio service must fully integrate within the main Online Public Access catalogue (http://kir.ent.sirsidynix.net.uk/client/en_GB/default/) in the LMS. Borrowers must be able to move seamlessly between the Online Public Access catalogue and the e-book site. The Council requires a standard Council website header and footer, look and feel (Please see the ‘Council's Minimum Specification’ for further branding details). The Council requires their IT services to comply with the Equalities Act 2010. As a minimum, the solution must support Windows accessibility features. The system needs to support the following web browsers: — Chrome, — Firefox, — Opera, — Safari, or — Microsoft Edge. At the very least, the system needs to support Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 or above, which is a mandatory requirement of the Council. For further details, please refer to the ‘Council's Minimum Specification’ published at the same time this Notice (available to download at https://www.yortender.co.uk/ or available at the address set out in Sections I.1) and I.3) of this Notice).