MELA Stats Database Request for Proposal (RFP)

By /

MELA Stats Database
Request for Proposal (RFP)
May 30, 2020

Project overview:

This document outlines the request for proposal to build a statistical database for materials in North America libraries for the counts of materials such as books, serials and media in Middle Eastern languages such as Arabic, Hebrew, Persian and Turkish.

The document provides information about the Middle East Librarians Association (MELA), and some more details about the proposed request for building MELA statistics database. This information includes the goals of the project, the scope, the technical details, time frame, the project’s budget, the points of contact, and what prospective bidders to include.

MELA Background:

The Middle East Librarians Association (MELA) is a non-profit organization that strives “to facilitate communication among members through meetings and publications; to improve the quality of area librarianship through the development of standards for the profession and education of Middle East library specialists; to compile and disseminate information concerning Middle East libraries and collections and to represent the judgment of the members in matters affecting them; to encourage cooperation among members and Middle East libraries, especially in the acquisition of materials and the development of bibliographic control; to cooperate with other library and area organizations in projects of mutual concern and benefit; to promote research in and development of indexing and automated techniques as applied to Middle East materials.”

Based on the general goals above, in 2018 MELA has formed a working group to develop a MELA statistical database so MELA members can be more informed about what materials related to the Middle Eastern studies in which languages and formats are available to researchers in the US.

Project Goals:

Build a statistical database for counts of materials in Middle Eastern languages in North America libraries. This includes materials in all formats such as books, serials and media. The numbers in the
database will reflect the counts of materials written in Middle Eastern languages such as, but not limited to, Arabic, Armenian, Hebrew, Persian, Kurdish and Turkish.

The database also should integrate the counts of materials in Middle Eastern languages that are collected and made available by OCLC.

The database will serve Middle Eastern librarians and others who are interested in Middle Eastern studies to understand the extent of the field through the numbers of materials that are available to
researchers in the US.

The requested database should replicate the main features of the Council for East Asian Libraries’ (CEAL) database, which is named The Council on East Asian Libraries Statistics.

Project Scope:

The statistical database will collect data and provide information about the following elements:

  • Materials in different formats and types, including books, ebooks, serials, microforms,
    ephemera, rare/special collections, graphic materials, audio materials, films and videos, DVDs,
    computer files, electronic resources, and backlogs.
  • Languages: Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Turkish, Kurdish, Armenian and Ottoman.
  • Staff: professional staff, supporting staff, student assistants and outsourcing
  • Budgets, allocations and expenditures
  • Participating libraries: open to all libraries in North America with collections in Middle Eastern
    languages.
  • Years: materials collected in a specific calendar year. The database will use 2020 as the start
    year, then the future years going forward. Data for 2020 will reflect the entire collection in the
    Middle Eastern languages in participating libraries, and then data will be collected annually for
    each individual year going forward.

Other specifications to be considered:

  • Using the data elements above, users should be able to generate reports, such as reports on the
    total count of items/volumes in a specific library or group of libraries in a specific language, or a
    group of languages in a specific year or a number of years, including how much funding was
    used. A good example of what needs to be done can be found in the statistical database of theCouncil for East Asian Libraries (CEAL) at https://ceal.ku.edu/table/advanced
  • Users should be able to retrieve reports, view them online and export them in Excel or CSV
    format.
  • MELA members will need training for using the database, and demos for running and exporting
    reports should be provided.

Technical requirements:

Hosting the database: the database will be hosted on MELA’s website. So, the code for the database
should work with the infrastructure of the website https://www.mela.us/

Accounts:

  • MELA administrative account: this account is needed to allow the MELA webmaster to manage
    the database or make any admin future needed changes. For example, an expected use of this
    account would be to give/create data-entry accounts for future participant libraries.
  • Data-entry accounts: one account to be created for each participant library, which will allow one
    staff in each library to enter data for her/his library.

Data-Entry: the database should have a page with forms to allow participant libraries to enter data.
Forms should allow editing and changing the data that belongs to individual participant libraries for a
specific time, then changes or editing data should be only possible through a MELA admin account.

Updates and database security: the software used in building the database should allow data security. In addition, software updates should be possible without changing or losing the historical data saved in the database.

Database maintenance: the database should be maintained for at least the first year after launching, to make sure that all is working appropriately, and all the reports and forms are working accurately in full capacity.

Project’s timeframe:

  • Building the database: the prototype database with all forms and accounts (admin account and
    testing accounts) should be ready by the end of October 2020.
  • Testing: this phase should take place between November and December 2020. In this phase a
    few testing libraries should be able to enter data and run reports.
  • Demos and training information should be ready by the end of December 2020.
  • The database should be ready for launching in early spring (January or February) of 2021.

Project’s budget:

  • MELA is looking for the number of hours needed for the needed work, and the cost per hour.
  • Please list the cost required for the database maintenance, at least for the first year after
    launching the database, until the end of 2021.

Bidders to provide:

  • A technical proposal outlining how the work would be done, including diagrams, programming
    languages, or applications used for the database, and how it might be integrated into MELA’s
    website.
  • CV of the bidder including a portfolio of recent projects, with references.
  • Proposed budget based on costs for software and licensing (and if any of the budget items will
    be ongoing or not), labor costs, and other impacts on budget.
  • A project timeline, which should consider the expected timeframe mentioned above in the RFP.
  • How the work should be done. This is to help in documenting the project for future database
    maintenance or data migration purposes.

Point of contact:

RFP timeframe:

Proposals will be accepted through June 2020.

Scroll to Top