Answers to Vendor Questions Received October 21, 2021

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Can you please provide answers to questions before the November 16 deadline?

• Page 1. “The maximum grant funding, including the required local match, for this project is $56,250.” Can you please clarify if $56,250 is the maximum budget for this project?

  • Yes, this is the maximum budget for the project.

    • Does this budget include the additional 5 years of service and maintenance costs?

      • No, the five year costs are prohibited from being paid through the LSTA funds. We want to know the anticipated ongoing costs. We will also ask our Friends group if they have funds they can allocate to the five year costs if we can negotiate a cheaper rate if we can prepay.

• Page 8. “There is a mandatory site visit scheduled for Friday, November 12, 2021 at 10:30 a.m. CST. All vendors are urged to attend.” Can you please clarify if the Site Visit is “mandatory” or if it’s something you are urging us to attend?

  • Our library board of trustees decided the site visit is  mandatory.

• Page 10. Demonstrations. Can the demonstrations be held virtually?

  • While on-site demonstrations are preferred, our board agreed virtual demonstrations would be acceptable due to the unpredictability of the on-going pandemic.

• Pages 17-18. Item 17. “For vendor-provided turnkey encoding services, the proposer must provide the following.” Are tagging services a part of the specified budget or will the library be performing these tagging/conversion services themselves?

  • It depends on the total project cost. If the cost of the entire project is within the $56,250, then the grant will pay for it. If the turnkey services exceeds the $56,250, then library staff will have to do the tagging/conversion.

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Answers to Vendor Questions Received October 22, 2021

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• Page 6. Scope of the Project. It is noted you currently have an inventory of approximately 28,500 items. Does this include print and A/V materials to be tagged? On page 36 you request 40,000 RFID Book Tags and 4,500 RFID Disc/Media Tags, are these requested quantities correct?

  • Yes, the 28,500 represents our entire collection at the moment: books, DVD’s, Audiobooks/CD, etc. We requested enough tags to do the entire inventory and to have tags on hand for additions to our collections. When purchasing barcodes from a previous vendor, 5,000 barcodes last us approximately 2 to 3 years. They can last even longer during tight budget years.

• Page 7. Scope of the Project. “The library currently has a book drop installed on an exterior wall of the building and prefers for RFID technology to be added to the existing structure.” And on page 37 in the pricing table a Book drop chute is noted. Can you please provide more specifics on what you would like quoted? Can you share photos and dimensions or your current structure?

  • We would like to use our existing structure if at all possible. Pictures attached. As there is curvature involved, I am not positive on how to provide dimensions, but if vendors have suggestions on the best way to provide the dimensions, we will be happy to attempt to do so. The inner width of the book drop is 15”.

• Page 8. Role of the RFP. “…except for any specification that says MANDATORY…” It appears that there are no specifications identified as “mandatory” in the RFP. Can you please clarify?

  • We tried not to be too technical on MANDATORY requirements as we believe our vendors will know the best solutions to offer. The primary focus is the system must be compatible with our ILS -- Atriuum by Book Systems, work with our Windows 10 PCs, and provide the minimum quantities specified on the pricing table beginning on page 36.

• Page 13. Specifications. “The vendor of the proposed system must meet the critical requirements of the RFP using the following criteria specified below." It appears that there are no specifications identified as “critical” in the RFP. Can you please clarify?

  • We will review how the proposed solutions addresses items listed on pages 13 through 36. The most important will be items listed on the pricing table beginning on page 36.

• Pages 25-26. Item 44, e.-h. Who is your current payment processor? According to page 28, Item 71, it appears your current processor is Square. In addition, who currently provides your print release services and computer reservation services?

  • Square is our current payment processer. We currently use LibData as our time and print management service.

• Page 27. Item 68. “Countertop systems must offer the option for installation in locations where space is limited by offering a form factor that requires no more than 13 inches of space for the width of the system.” Can you please clarify if the maximum space available for the countertop self-checkout is 13 inches?

  • The current area for these is on a 71x35 surface. We can repurpose an additional library table if needed. We did not include these in the pricing table on page 36 because these are items we are willing to do without if pricing is an issue.

• Page 28. Item 70. “The combination of the shielded RFID reader and the countertop width must support the ability to install up to 3 countertop systems in a 48- inch width counter.” According to page 36 it appears you would like one (1) freestanding self-checkout, can you please confirm?

  • Yes, we want at least one free-standing self-checkout station. The 3 countertop self-checkout stations we are willing to drop to keep the project within budget.

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From some of your answers it sounds like you may have a current self-checkout unit. Who is your current vendor for this unit? In addition, what form of book security are you currently using, if any?

• Actually we do not currently have a self-checkout station. We want to add one because of the need for contactless processing made necessary by the pandemic and to provide greater privacy to patrons who may not want a librarian to know what they are checking out. Our library is a little less than 5,000 square feet with only about 2/3rds of that open to the public.

• We have zero security at present other than staff trying to observe if anyone is walking out with material.

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RFID Project awarded to Envisionware on Monday, December 13, 2021.