OLS-2022-ILL - Province-Wide Interlibrary Loan Solution

The purpose of this RFP is to seek interest from qualified contractors to provide services that will ensure continued access to interlibrary loan (ILL) so that Ontario can support the informational, cultural, and recreational needs of its citizens. Specifically, the qualified vendor must accomplish the following on or before March 31, 2024:
 

• migrate libraries on the existing ILL platform used by Ontario public libraries to a new web-based, software as a service (SaaS) ILL platform, on servers housed, maintained, backed-up, and supported by the Vendor, preferably in Canada.
• provide access to individual libraries to all core ILL functions of the System, with OLS serving as the top-level administrator of the system overall.
• provide a province wide library union catalog integrating the collections of participating libraries who are on multiple ILS systems. The Interlibrary Loan management software will ideally integrate search results from various Z39.50 targets and the combined database of holdings and convert the search into a loan request, although other open technologies that achieve the same outcome will be considered. The platform should also support the inclusion of the holdings of five libraries that do not have live Z39.50 target access to their catalogue through the mastering of an annual physical database.
• offer a robust interlibrary loan system that can manage a large number of requests within the network, while still managing requests outside of the INFO consortia with other ILL systems outside of Ontario.
• provide a discovery tool for identifying the holdings that is attractive, functional, and offers flexible searching and display options.
• offer a user-friendly public discovery layer that allows for interlibrary loan requests to be issued directly by library patron, with individual libraries controlling all access and permissions, and allowing for mediation/intervention by OLS and library staff as needed.
• support standard ISO interlibrary loan and W3C internet protocols.
• offer appropriate support and training during and after the migration process.