The Vendor is required to provide a digital collections management platform.
- The company will work with proper library personnel to deploy cloud-based software for use by library staff and end users.
- Committee will give preferences to vendors with documented experience of library-specific digital collections platform support and metadata and workflow management.
- Digital collections platform must deliver a robust, user-friendly experience for both public users and library staff.
- User Front-End and Presentation: Intuitive browsing and advanced search capabilities, responsive design across devices, full-text and image viewing tools, support for compound and paged objects, media playback, SEO optimization, social sharing, and customizable branding and interface elements. The platform must comply with Section 508 Standards (Revised) and WCAG 2.1 Levels A and AA for accessibility, with Level AAA encouraged.
- Staff Interface & Data Management: Web-based workflows for collection creation and bulk ingest, granular permission controls, metadata export/import, support for multiple file formats (image, text, audio/video), embargo capability, custom metadata fields, and integration with controlled vocabularies and AI technologies for enhanced metadata and transcription. Tools for migration from Omeka and Be press Digital Commons, metadata backup, and integration with third party preservation platforms.
- System Architecture and Operations: Support for cloud hosting; IIIF and linked data protocols; high availability (99.9% uptime); API extensibility; and scalable architecture with fine-grained security controls.
- System Support, Security, and Data Management: Guaranteed uptime, redundancy planning, performance metrics, and a responsive support structure with defined SLAs, Secure access protocols (SSL/TLS), continuous data backup, and clear delineation of responsibilities for system updates and maintenance.
- Implementation, Training, Documentation, and Community: A detailed implementation timeline, comprehensive training programs, and access to a training server.
- Administration & Management: full administrative control, customizable statistical reporting, and compatibility with analytics platforms like Google Analytics.
- Must have the ability to provide a digital collections platform accommodating no less than 25 simultaneous staff users (simultaneously executing actions including editing and uploading content), and an unlimited number of public users through a web interface.
- Provide at least three customer references (name, institution, and phone number). References should include comparable regional comprehensive institutions.
- The ability to automate the upload, edit, and deletion of items, their associated metadata, and relationships. We need a platform that helps us meet the forthcoming ADA Title II digital accessibility requirements.
- Search & Discovery
• Robust, customizable public interface with browse, search, and filtering (including advanced search). Can support multiple sites with distinct web domains. Allows users to browse and search across all records, including the ability to limit searches to select collections.
• Supports full-text searching within documents, with page-level highlighting comparable to Internet Archive Book Reader.
• Viewing & Navigation
• Image and paged content viewer with pan/zoom/rotate, thumbnail navigation, page-level display, full screen toggle, and highlighted full-text search results.
• Supports compound objects with attached items.
• Provides serials access by date index.
• Breadcrumbs or equivalent navigation showing collection context.
- Access & Sharing
• Download items in multiple derivative formats (list supported formats). Also includes ability to download a single page or entire work.
• Supports permalinks for objects/collections, links to parent/child records, and citation generation.
• Enables sharing via social media platforms.
- Discoverability & Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Items and collections should be optimized for discoverability through external search engines.
• Metadata, titles, and descriptions should be exposed in a way that facilitates indexing by major search engines and discovery services.
- Media Support
• Integrated audio and video player (with associated image for audio)
• Or streaming media player.
• Or integration with third-party streaming services.
- Design & Accessibility
• Customizable homepage and collection landing pages, with design flexibility to align with EKU Libraries’ web identity.
• Responsive across browsers/devices; supports SSL/HTTPS.
• Meets Section 508 and WCAG 2.1 A/AA (AAA encouraged).
- Contract Period/Term: 1 year
- Questions/Inquires Deadline: January 06, 2026
