Publishing services

Tender description

Jisc Services Ltd (JSL) is looking to work in collaboration with publishers to make digital archival collections (DACs) of primary source materials more affordable to university libraries so researchers, teachers and learners can enjoy access to a wider range of resources and libraries can achieve further efficiencies. DACs can comprise of many forms of digitised materials including, but not limited to, texts, manuscripts, illustrations, photographs, maps, pamphlets, diaries, correspondence, ephemera, cartoons and audio-visual materials. JSL is seeking multiple publishers to sit on a multi-supplier framework agreement for the provision of static collections with no recurring platform fees that reduce in cost based on the number of products bought by any Jisc-banded institution over the course of an academic year. This concept is referred to as the group purchasing scheme. DACs must be focused on content relevant to arts, humanities and social sciences. The DAC group purchasing scheme, will be limited to content relevant to the UK and Irish Higher Education (HE) sector only. Publishers offering content that is not relevant to this sector will be excluded from this procurement process. The group purchasing scheme for digital archival collections focuses on materials relevant to Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. For the purpose of this procurement process ‘digital archival collections of primary source materials ’may be referenced as ‘products’ or ‘archival material’. Any product offered must be a static, fixed digital archival collection as described in the OR document. Products that are updated yearly, or are rolling wall products, or are typically sold as subscriptions, will NOT be eligible to be included in the group purchasing scheme. All products must be offered to institutions as a one-off perpetual purchase including platform/access fees. There must be no additional recurrent platform charges or access fees levied on institutions who have purchased digital archival collections under the group purchasing framework once the initial purchase has been made. Publishers have the discretion to decide which, and how many, products to offer as part of the group purchasing scheme up to a maximum of 20 products per yearly cycle. Publishers will have the opportunity to review the range of products offered on an annual basis during the initial duration (two years) and the potential lifetime (max 4 years) of the framework. The scope of the framework will be made available to all UK and Irish higher education institutions.