Published date: 12 September 2017

Closed opportunity - This means that the contract is currently closed. The buying department may be considering suppliers that have already applied, or no suitable offers were made.


Closing: 12 October 2017

Contract summary

Industry

  • Transmission apparatus for radiotelephony, radiotelegraphy, radio broadcasting and television - 32200000

  • Television and radio receivers, and sound or video recording or reproducing apparatus - 32300000

  • Research consultancy services - 73210000

    • Library, archives, museums and other cultural services - 92500000

    • Library and archive services - 92510000

Location of contract

NW1 2DB

Value of contract

£70,000 to £150,000

Procurement reference

tender_154015/619211

Published date

12 September 2017

Closing date

12 October 2017

Contract start date

1 February 2018

Contract end date

31 January 2020

Contract type

Service contract

Procedure type

Restricted procedure

A two-stage procedure, where the first stage is used to select suppliers, who are then invited to bid in the second stage.

Contract is suitable for SMEs?

Yes

Contract is suitable for VCSEs?

No

Description

The Library is recognised as the home of the nation's radio archive. The current radio collection comprises around 250,000 hours. Additionally, via a longstanding arrangement with the BBC the Library also provides the only UK point of research access to the extensive radio collections of the BBC Archives. However, of the estimated 3m hours of radio broadcast in the UK each year from c.700 stations, the Library is capturing a mere 15,000 hours (mostly news-based content). It is estimated that 92% of current UK radio is not being properly preserved, with only 2% being made available for potential research post-transmission.
The minimum requirements for a successful pilot will be to deliver a capture and management solution for AV broadcast media, which will enable the British Library to record off-air between 12 and 18 hours per channel, per day, from a combination of national and local radio stations from across UK (up to 300,000 hours per year); to preserve these recordings in the British Library's Digital Library System; and to make them accessible (with published and derived metadata) through British Library access systems.
To address this situation we plan to create a digital radio archive, based on off-air recording, which will preserve a proportion of ongoing UK radio output (emphasising speech-based content), and make this available for research. The first step is to build a pilot radio archive over a period of two years, covering up to 50 stations from across the UK, to be developed thereafter into a full service. The pilot will test technologies, scalability, sustainability, research use and integration with British Library systems.

More information

Links

Additional text

Suppliers Instructions How to Express Interest in this Tender~: 1. Register your company on the eSourcing portal (this is only required once): https://bl.bravosolution.co.uk and click the link to register - Accept the terms and conditions and click 'I agree' - Enter your correct business and user details - Note the username you chose and click 'Save' when complete - You will shortly receive an email with your unique password (please keep this secure) 2. Express an Interest in the tender - Login to the portal with the username/password - Click the 'PQQs Open To All Suppliers' link. (These are Pre-Qualification Questionnaires or Invitations to Tender open to any registered supplier) - Click on the relevant PQQ to access the content. - Click the 'Express Interest' button at the top of the page. - This will move the PQQ into your 'My PQQs' page. (This is a secure area reserved for your projects only) -You can now access any attachments by clicking 'Buyer Attachments' in the 'PQQ Details' box 3. Responding to the tender - Click 'My Response' under 'PQQ Details', you can choose to 'Create Response' or to 'Decline to Respond' (please give a reason if declining) - You can now use the 'Messages' function to communicate with the buyer and seek any clarification - Note the deadline for completion, then follow the onscreen instructions to complete the PQQ - There may be a mixture of online and offline actions for you to perform (there is detailed online help available) You must then submit your reply using the 'Submit Response' button at the top of the page. If you require any further assistance please consult the online help, or contact the eTendering help desk.

About the buyer

Address

The British Library
Boston Spa
LS23 7BQ
England

Email

vicky.platt@bl.uk