Presentation at the Hawaii Library Association Conference 2010.

1. The Long and Winding Road:
The RFP Process for a Statewide
Suite of Databases
Annis Lee Adams
University of Hawaii at Manoa
Sarah Gilman
University of Hawaii – West Oahu
Hawaii Library Association Annual Conference
November 5, 2010

2. Hawaii Library Consortium
• The purpose of the Hawaii Library
Consortium shall be to increase, enhance,
and facilitate cooperation among libraries in
the State of Hawaii through consortial
purchasing of resources, expanding access
to resources, and encouraging partnerships
between and among member libraries.
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3. Membership
• Approximately 30 member institutions,
including:
• HSPLS
• DOE
• UH System
• Private K-12
• Private Academic
• Special libraries
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4. Why an RFP?
• The multi-year year contract with EBSCO
ended 6/30/2010
• Wanted to compare the offerings from all the
database vendors
• Wanted to be sure to get the best price for
the content
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5. Vendor Demo Day
• On 10/27/2008, invited the 4 major vendors
to present their database products
• Took place at the DOE Annex in Kaimuki
• Each vendor had 1.5 hours
• Excellent attendance from Consortium
members!
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6. Database Trials and Evaluation
• Set up trials of the databases with 4 vendors.
• We asked staff at member institutions to look
at the various databases.
• We created a survey monkey evaluation of
the database features and content.
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7. Writing the RFP
• Washington State and Oregon had both
recently conducted a similar RFP process.
• Both states shared their RFP documents with
us.
• Underwent several drafts of our RFP before it
was ready.
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