It is the intent of the National Library of Medicine (NLM ) to procure professional indexing services on a sole source basis from Institute of Medical Information, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, under authority of FAR 6.302-1, for a continuing stream of indexed foreign articles from biomedical journals for inclusion of MEDLINE. The staff of the Institute of Medical Information, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (CAM), has performed over twenty years of indexing for NLM MEDLINE of biomedical journals published in China. The Staff of CAMS is uniquely qualified to perform this indexing based on their knowledge of the Chinese language; knowledge of Chinese medicine; and fully trained to perform MEDLINE indexing. CAM will be using their own copies of journals published in China, and using their own computer equipment and telecommunications system. Chinese Academy-trained staff will analyze journal articles for subject content and apply appropriate subject headings drawn from the NLM controlled thesaurus, MeSH (Medical Subject Headings), using the NLM's Web-based indexing system (to which NLM will provide access).

Staff members of CAM trained in NLM MEDLINE indexing policy and have many years of satisfactory indexing performance. Use of this source will eliminate the need to train new indexers and supply NLM with Chinese language expertise. Indexing will be performed following the policies and rules specified in the NLM MEDLINE Indexing Manual and technical memoranda. The journal articles are highly technical in nature, and require subject knowledge of the biomedical sciences in order to perform adequate subject analysis and indexing.

The Contractor will index life science journal articles by applying Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) describing the content of each article, following procedures and
policies contained in established NLM guidelines, including the NLM Indexing Manual, MeSH annotations, and other NLM-generated indexing aids such as Technical
Memoranda or email updates. Indexers will use DCMS, the NLM Web-based online indexing system, to add subject headings to the online record for each article. Indexers will access the online record for each article and review the descriptive data provided (pagination, language, authors, author affiliation, and title). The major effort involves the intellectual analysis of the article for subject content and the application of appropriate subject headings, publication types, and qualifiers drawn from MeSH. DCMS contains many validation programs to detect real or potential errors. Indexers will respond to "Error" or "Warning" messages generated by the system.

This is procurement reflects a continuing partnership between NLM with the Chinese Academy. The Chinese Academy's unique position of experience and journal access and the experience of NLM with the indexing community through similar international agreements and three other US indexing contracts.

The resulting award term will be for the period of January 1, 2012 through December 31, 2012 with two option years of 12-months each. The award type is anticipated to be an Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Purchase Order.

The proposed acquisition will be procured under FAR Par 12 - Acquisition of Commercial Items. This is not a Request for Quotations (RFQ), nor is an RFQ available, however, all responsive sources may submit a proposal in a timely manner (by response due date) which will be considered by NLM. Inquiries regarding this procurement may be made to the National Library of Medicine, Office of Acquisitions, 6707 Democracy Boulevard, Suite 105, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, Attention: Alex Navas, Contracting Officer, Tel 301-435-4393. Fax requests WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.

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