National Library of Medicine, Office of Acquisitions Management, Building 38A, Room B1N17, 8600 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, Maryland 20894

R -- PROFESSIONAL SUPPORT SERVICES SOL RFQ NLM 00-168/UHP DUE 081500 POC Uyen H. Phuong (301) 496-6127 E-MAIL: karen_riggs@nlm.nih.gov, uyen_phuong@nlm.nih.gov. It is the intent of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to procure on a competitive basis for the delivery of text content provided by major health news services including but, not limited to the AP medical report wire, the New York Times Syndicate's Your Health Daily, and Reuters Health for inclusion in MEDLINEplus (http://medlineplus.gov/). MEDLINEplus is NLM's web-based consumer information resource that includes health topic pages, drug information and other links to Internet resources of interest to the consumer. NLM intends to extract and display headlines from the content with hypertext links to the full text of the corresponding news story both from the Library's portal pages and/or, as appropriate, from the more than 400 topic pages on the website. NLM's website is supported entirely by the U.S. Government. It is free, and there is no advertising. Currently, MEDLINEplus receives over 2 million page hits per month. This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format in FAR Subpart 12.6, as supplemented. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; proposals are being requested and a written solicitation WILL NOT BE ISSUED. RFQ NLM 00-168/UHP is being issued as a Request for Quotation. This synopsis/solicitation document will incorporate provisions and clauses of those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular 97-10. NLM requires that the news services provide current, original content of broad national or international interest written for a mass-media audience of health consumers or health professionals. Among the topics to be covered are health and wellness, biomedical research results, new drug information, new disease treatments, information on specific diseases and conditions, etc. NLM wishes to select from among sufficient content to yield an average of approximately 15 to 30 news stories per business day and may make up to three awards to assure this selection range. Stories must include: headline, date, and source. Offerors must have policies and procedures in place to insure the integrity of the content of each story. NLM desires to host the content on its website. The news files should be delivered to NLM via the Internet at least once each business day. They must be delivered as XML (Extensible Mark-up Language), HTML or in a similar field formatted data format that will allow NLM to easily transfer the data to its online system. XML is preferred. Data must be transferred via the Internet using a secure protocol. NLM prefers to provide public access to these stories for a minimum of 30 days following their first release; however, the ability to provide longer access is desirable. Offers will be evaluated on criteria which include comprehensiveness of health and medical coverage, currency, authoritativeness of information supplied, clarity of articles, suitability for NLM's intended audience, ability to easily select and integrate content into NLM website, length of time material is available, and conformance with NLM's technical requirements. The purpose of this procurement is to obtain access to current mass-media health and medical print news to complement other information available on NLM's site. Offers should state the range of sources from which material is selected, the criteria for selection, whether or not special filtering services or software delivery services are offered, the intended audience, the approximate number of stories offered daily or monthly, the currency of material offered, the length of time stories may remain on the licensee's website, whether or not a separate archive is offered, length of time material is retained on the archive. Detailed information on any pricing options offered is required. It is anticipated that multiple awards will be made for this announcement. The proposed acquisition will be procured under FAR Part 12 -- Acquisition of Commercial Items. Responses must be in writing and must be received in this office by August 15, 2000, and must include pricing information and meet the criteria requirement. All responses from responsible sources will be considered. Inquires regarding this procurement may be made to the National Library of Medicine, Office of Acquisitions Management, 8600 Rockville Pike, Building 38A, Room B1N20, Bethesda, Maryland 20894, Attention: Uyen H. Phuong, Lead Purchasing Agent, on (301) 496-6127. Fax requests WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED. Posted 07/28/00 (W-SN480037). (0210)

Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0051 20000801\R-0002.SOL)

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