Physical Library Materials, Shelf-Ready Processing, Bibliographic Records, and Collection Support Services

Washington County Cooperative Library Services (WCCLS) seeks proposals from qualified vendors to provide physical library materials and related services for centralized collection management, which will support the sixteen library locations operated by nine cities and three non-profits in Washington County, Oregon.

The selected vendor(s) will support WCCLS's centralized collection management through the provision of:

• Physical library materials
• Selection and collection-development tools
• Cataloging services
• Shelf-ready processing
• Acquisitions support
• EDI transactions
• Reporting and analytics
• Delivery and fulfillment services

WCCLS intends to establish a long-term partnership with vendor(s) capable of supporting a centralized collection management system serving multiple public libraries under a primary acquisitions and ownership model. Proposers may submit proposals for any or all of the material formats and shelf-ready services specified in the RFP; for instance, a vendor who specializes in media and not print may still be considered and awarded a contract alongside others. WCCLS reserves the right to award one contract or multiple contracts.

While the awarded contract(s) will be solely with Washington County and WCCLS, WCCLS seeks a vendor who will extend the pricing and discounts in the awarded contract(s) to the twelve partner agencies who operate libraries in our Cooperative and may continue to order items for local collections. Partner libraries shall have the ability to independently establish their own relationships, accounts, billing, and shipping with the vendor while receiving the same pricing and discounts in any awarded contract(s) with WCCLS. The combined annual ordering volume of WCCLS and partner libraries in the Cooperative is anticipated to be similar to the FY25-26 ordering volume (see attachment “Count of Items Added to the WCCLS Catalog in FY25-26”).

The Proposer must be willing to commit to the level of service and discounts quoted for a minimum of three years, regardless of the volume of business. Important considerations to WCCLS are the cost of materials, availability of materials, website/platform functionality, collection development tools, ordering efficiency, delivery capabilities, and level of customer service, including handling of returns and timely correction of errors. The opportunity for high-volume business from WCCLS is possible if the cost and services of the successful Proposer meet and/or exceed our expectations.

Preferences for invoicing, processing, delivery, etc. are indicated in the Vendor Capabilities section of this RFP. A Proposer may not be disqualified solely based on these preferences alone; however, a willingness to follow the preferred methods will be noted favorably.

WCCLS is a department of Washington County, headquartered in Hillsboro, Oregon, that provides centralized library services and infrastructure that support twelve partner agencies (nine cities and three non-profits). WCCLS and its partners together form the Cooperative, which serves over 600,000 county residents.

WCCLS operates on a July through June fiscal year. For FY26-27, its combined digital and physical collections budget is approximately $4.4 million, with a planned increase for FY27-28 as we centralize collection management for the Cooperative. The WCCLS budget for physical library materials alone in FY27-28 should exceed $1 million. Libraries in our cooperative that opt to order from selected vendor(s) under our established pricing and discount agreement(s) would budget additional funds.

Under our new centralized collection management model on behalf of the Cooperative, WCCLS will:

• Select materials
• Purchase materials
• Manage acquisitions
• Manage cataloging workflows
• Manage collection analytics
• Coordinate processing specifications
• Own physical collections

To learn more about our cooperative’s move to centralized collection management, visit wccls.org .

Libraries in our cooperative may supplement the collection managed by WCCLS by purchasing additional materials outside of the scope of the core collection.

WCCLS administers and uses the Polaris ILS, and orders are submitted via EDI. The selected Proposer must demonstrate the ability to support centralized acquisitions while accommodating possible branch-specific delivery requirements.