Compendex on Engineering Village Subscription Services – Combined Sources Sought/Notice of Intent to Sole Source

Active

Contract Opportunity

***THIS IS A COMBINED SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE AND NOTICE OF INTENT TO SOLE SOURCE***

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is seeking information from sources that may be capable of providing Compendex on Engineering Village Database. If no alternate sources are identified, the Government intends to issue a Sole Source Award to Elsevier B.V.

(Radarweg 29, Amsterdam 1043 NX Netherlands) under the authority of FAR 13.106-1(b). The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this acquisition is 513120.

The NIST Research Library and Museum (aka the Library), though teams focusing on Resources, Access & Data, Outreach & Marketing, and Museum & Archives provides professional scientific and technical information assistance to a community of 3,000 researchers throughout their research and publishing cycles. The Library provides accurate, high quality, and timely research consulting and information products and ensures that users can discover and obtain the digital and print resources needed to support NIST’s mission. A large part of the information resources made available to the NIST researchers and e-resources in the form of e-journals, digitized versions of NIST technical publications, databases, and eBooks made accessible through the Library website.

The NIST Research Library has access to Compendex on Engineering Village which is one of the most frequently used databases at NIST with approximately 25,000 search and download interactions yearly. The purpose of this requisition is to continue access to the database, which provides comprehensive and broad subject areas of engineering and applied science. Coverage includes nuclear technology, bioengineering, transportation, chemical and process engineering, light and optical technology, agricultural engineering and food technology, computers and data processing, applied physics, electronics and communications, control, civil, mechanical, materials, petroleum, aerospace and automotive engineering as well as narrower subtopics within all these and other major engineering fields.

General Requirements:

The vendor must provider subscription services to Compendex on Engineering Village database.

1. Provide unlimited access to online content with coverage from 1884 to the present for 190 engineering disciplines from 89 countries; 2,650 publishers; 4,000+ journals; 200+ trade magazines; 10.3 million+ papers from 150,000+ conference proceedings; 300,000+ dissertations, 39,000+ books, 290,000+ book chapters; 159 book series, 220,000+ standards records, and 1.2 million+ open access preprint records, and records from 12 standard developing organizations.


2. Provide a search interface which enables quick and easy access to content.


3. Provide 24/7 electronic access to the Compendex on Engineering Village database from NIST Researchers' desktops or anywhere within the NIST domain.


4. Externally hosted database with IP authentication.


5. Provide training and technical support.

NIST conducted market research from 2020 to 2025 by attending conferences, speaking with colleagues, performing internet searches, and speaking with vendors to determine what sources could meet NIST’s minimum requirements. The results of that market research revealed that only Elsevier B.V. (UEI: V1BLMWD5MTR1) appears to be capable of meeting NIST’s requirements.

No other source can provide the Compendex on Engineering Village database subscription that Elsevier B.V. can provide.

HOW TO RESPOND TO THIS NOTICE

In responding to this notice, please DO NOT PROVIDE PROPRIETARY INFORMATION. Please include only the following information, readable in either Microsoft Word 365, Microsoft Excel 365, or .pdf format, in the response. Submit the response by email to the Primary Point of Contact and, if specified, to the Secondary Point of Contact listed at the bottom of this notice as soon as possible, and preferably before the closing date and time of this notice.

• Provide the complete name of your company, address, name of contact for follow-up questions, their email, their phone number and, if your company has an active registration in https://sam.gov, your company’s Unique Entity ID (UEI).

• Details about what your company is capable of providing that meets or exceeds NIST’s minimum requirements.

• Whether your company is an authorized reseller of the product or service being cited and evidence of such authorization.

• Identify any aspects of the description of the requirements in the BACKGROUND section above that could be viewed as unduly restrictive or create unnecessary barriers that adversely affect your firm’s ability to fully participate in a procurement for such services and explain why. Please offer suggestions for how the requirements could be organized or structured to encourage the participation of small businesses.

• For the NAICS code

• Indicate whether your company is (a) a small business or (b) other than small business. See the Table of Small Business Size Standards and the associated .pdf download file for small business size standards and additional information.


• If you believe the NAICS code listed in this notice is not the best NAICS code for the type of product addressed in this notice, identify an alternative NAICS code that you believe would be more appropriate for the planned procurement.

• If your firm has existing Federal Supply Schedule contract(s) or other contracts for products or services against which the Department may be able to place orders, identify the contract number(s) and other relevant information.

• Describe your firm’s experience (as a prime, subcontractor, or consultant) providing the products or services described in Background section.

• Provide any other information that you believe would be valuable for the Government to know as part of its market research for this requirement.

• Please let us know if you would like to engage to get a better understanding of the requirement or need additional information about the Government’s requirement for the products or services described in the Background section.

QUESTIONS REGARDING THIS NOTICE

Questions regarding this notice may be submitted via email to the Primary Point of Contact listed in this notice. Questions should be submitted so that they are received by 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time on November 21, 2025. Questions will be anonymized and answered via sources sought notice amendment following the question submission deadline.

IMPORTANT NOTES

The information received in response to this notice will be reviewed and considered so that the NIST may appropriately solicit for its requirements in the near future.

This notice should not be construed as a commitment by the NIST to issue a solicitation or ultimately award a contract.

This notice is not a request for a quotation. Responses will not be considered as proposals or quotations.

No award will be made as a result of this notice.

NIST is not responsible for any costs incurred by the respondents to this notice.

NIST reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and appropriate.

Thank you for taking the time to submit a response to this request!

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