R605 - This is a sources sought synopsis to determine the availability of sustaining a need for Library Service Platform (LSP)

This is a Sources Sought synopsis to determine the availability of potential sources capable of sustaining the Naval War College’s continued need to support core library operations. These operations include patron management, acquisitions, circulation, cataloging, online public discovery and access, serials control, collection analysis, course reserves, electronic resource and licensing management, and reporting in an efficient and streamlined manner.

This requirement was previously sole sourced to Ex Libris, Inc., most recently under contract N0018920PZ230. Ex Libris, Inc. is currently the only known company who can sustain the required support amongst NWCs systems. Specifically, the NWC Library requires Alma, Primo VE, and Leganto, which is a fully operational, unclassified, turnkey, cloud-based, hosted LSP. The LSP a commercial off-the shelf product that is FedRAMP compliant.

This system will support core library operations (including patron management; acquisitions, circulation; cataloging; online public discovery and access; serials control; collection analysis; course reserves; electronic resource and licensing management; and reporting) in an efficient and streamlined manner. The library must use specialized management software to perform daily operations.

Currently, NWC Library uses a SaaS-based Library Service Platform (LSP) called Alma, Primo VE, and Leganto which is only provided through the vendor Ex Libris, Inc. Compliance with the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) is mandatory for Federal Agency cloud deployments and service models at all risk impact levels. FedRAMP is a government-wide program that provides a standardized approach to security assessment, authorization, and continuous monitoring for cloud products and services.

It is imperative this LSP software integrates amongst all four DoN institutions of higher education (Naval Postgraduate School, Marine Corps University, U.S. Naval Academy, and Naval War College). The Secretary of the Navy previously created a Naval University System, which aligned the library systems of these institutions. Currently, The U.S. Naval Academy, Naval Postgraduate School, and the Marine Corps University are utilizing Ex Libris Alma/Primo.

Adopting this unified approach ensures that in the future the Naval University System will be in a position to make the greatest amount of information available to the largest possible audience at the least cost. There must be no system downtime between the end of the existing contract year and the start of the new contract year.