Request for Proposals

Overview | Benefits of Participation | Important Dates | WGBH Project Contacts | Eligibility and Selection Criteria | Scope of Work | Deliverables | Project Support | Application

 

RFP CLOSED 1/31/11

Overview

The television and radio archives of American public media are scattered throughout the nation. To ensure that our audio and visual materials are safe and accessible, and to help us set priorities for the restoration, preservation, and digitization of public media’s legacy, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is conducting a system-wide inventory of public media “assets.” Comparable to a census or a “Domesday” project, the American Archive Content Inventory Project will launch during August of 2010, and will continue through May of 2011. This will be the only full-scale, comprehensive inventory of public media assets.

The American Archive was conceived to support the restoration and digitization of existing analog content, and to ensure that public media’s legacy is preserved for future generations. Over the past two years, the American Archive has conducted a variety of foundational initiatives, including a large scale “pilot project” that involved 25 distinct radio and television stations. This pilot project, which resulted in the preservation and digitization of more than 2,400 hours of audio and visual materials, yielded significant information regarding the processes involved in a large-scale preservation effort. Our inventory assumptions are based on the information gathered, and the “lessons learned,” during the pilot project.

Public media has made significant contributions to American culture and thought, and our archives are an essential and irreplaceable component of American history. In today’s digital environment, your organization can fulfill public broadcasting’s mandate by making valuable, important content available to an ever-growing audience and contribute to an expanded appreciation of your organization’s leadership and services. The CIP Manager – WGBH – in cooperation with CPB, invites you to apply for a CIP grant to conduct an inventory of your video and audio assets and participate in the important and historic American Archive Initiative.

Benefits of Participation

  • Gain control of your archival audio and video assets
  • Utilize your inventory to mine your collection for re-use and future projects
  • Record your content in a searchable central repository of archival public media
  • Participate in CPB’s American Archive Initiative and help inform its future
  • Eligibility to apply for future preservation and digitization funding

Important Dates

RFP Release Date: August 16, 2010
Proposals Accepted: September 7, 2010 to January 31, 2011
Proposals will be accepted on a rolling basis. Please note: the sooner you apply, the sooner your organization may be eligible to receive preservation funds for inventoried content. If you require a “SWAT” team, please apply by December 6, 2010.
Grant Agreement: Each organization selected to receive a grant will be issued a grant agreement which must be signed by your organization and by CPB. Individual project dates will vary.
Funds Granted: October 1, 2010 through February 28, 2011

WGBH Project Contacts

Courtney Michael
CIP Project Manager
617–300-2673
courtney_michael@wgbh.org		 Jeff Elias
CIP Project Assistant
617–300-2679
jeffrey_elias@wgbh.org		 Nancy Bocchino
Station Relations
617–300-5371
nancy_bocchino@wgbh.org

Eligibility Requirements and Selection Criteria

  • Your organization must be one of the following: (a) a public TV or radio station (or joint licensee); (b) a national public media organization; (e.g. PRI, ITVS); (c) an independent producer for any of the above entities; or (d) a repository holding material created by any of the above entities.
  • Your organization possesses radio and/or television content older than one year.
  • Your organization is willing and able to commit the time and staff required within project timeline.
  • Your organization has the required internal resources or can secure external resources, capacity and staff to manage the contractual agreement.
  • Your organization has the basic infrastructure and ability to manage and provide financial records related to the contractual agreement.
  • Your organization is committed to saving/storing inventoried content for future use.

Scope of Work

Content Inventory Project grantee work is expected to occur sometime during a 7-month time period to commence in October 2010 and conclude on or before April 29, 2011. Within these 7 months, final deadlines for individual grantees will vary according to workplans and the volume of collections. The work to be accomplished by grantees will be to:

  1. Locate and identify existing public broadcasting television and/or radio content held by your organization that is older than one year, including, but not limited to original audio and moving image recordings, finished programs, unedited footage or “outtakes,” audio or video collected for production research and master material.Note: do not include national programming which your organization did not produce and which is still within distribution rights.
    • Locate and identify existing electronic or paper inventories of archival materials (eg. Excel, Access, Filemaker, XML, CSV, Text, Word, ProTrack etc.)
    • Convert paper inventories to electronic records. Consider scanning or photographing paper records as part of this workflow.
    • If necessary, enhance existing inventories with additional data to meet minimum inventory requirements.
    • Determine if any of your content is not represented within existing inventories.
  2. Create new records to represent content not previously inventoried. This can be done within your existing system or using the tools provided by the CIP Project Team. Consider photographing assets as part of your workflow. Deliver your inventory records via individual entry or by exporting data from your system and uploading it as a batch for ingest. WGBH will provide technical assistance for batch upload/ingest to all grantees.Note: The CIP considers each physical or digital media item held by your organization an “asset.” For asset examples see Collection Survey.

Deliverables

  • The complete inventory of your organization’s archival public media content in compliance with the minimum requirements outlined in the Sample Inventory Form
  • Interim and final project status reports. (2 total)
  • Interim and final project financial reports. (2 total)

Project Support

Funding

CPB funding for the CIP is available to facilitate the submission of inventory records into a central repository. This work may happen in any number of ways, including individual record entry via the web; conversion of paper inventories to electronic records; and/or batch upload and ingestion of existing electronic inventories into the central repository.

The amount of funding will be determined by your organization’s volume of assets to be newly inventoried, and your organization’s costs to align existing inventories with the project requirements. For a definition of asset, see the Scope of Work.

The cost to create new records for your assets should fall within a range of $2–3 per asset, which is the cost to inventory audio and moving image content as determined by the American Archive Pilot Program (AAPP) led by Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) with support from CPB. Grant awards will range from $5,000 — $20,000 or more depending on the amount of content to be inventoried. The cost to align existing inventories with the project requirements, whether paper or electronic, will vary. Please contact us with any and all questions as you prepare your application.

Technical Assistance

CPB and WGBH will provide information, resources and technical support to your organization, such as:

  • Project web site for participating organizations, including progress statistics, news and community features.
  • Inventory guidelines, tools and suggested workflows. Inventory tools will include a form for cataloging assets online and batch ingest services for importing existing inventories from your systems (MS Access/Filemaker/Excel/ProTrack). Inventory tools will be adaptable for future projects and continued inventory work beyond this project.
  • Training webinars and materials available online.
  • Help desk phone assistance and web training with the project team as needed. Assistance with inventory and web site issues, and questions about the project.
  • WGBH will publish your data on the CIP web site, and will return the data back to you as PBCore XML records.
  • A “kick-start” team may be available for 1–2 days of on-site training to help your organization begin the inventory. To request a kick-start team, check the appropriate box on the signature form.
  • Inventory “SWAT” teams for organizations with extensive content assets who are unable to undertake the inventory in any capacity. To request a “SWAT” team, check the appropriate box on the signature form. SWAT team assistance will be given in lieu of a grant to your organization so a budget is not required. SWAT teams will be deployed beginning in January 2011 so requests for SWAT teams should be received by December 6th, 2010.

Application

The application has three parts, all of which are required. Part I must be completed online. Parts II and III may be completed online but will also be accepted via fax (617–300-1056), email, or mail if necessary. If you are requesting a SWAT team, you are required to complete parts I and II only. See Project Support-Technical Assistance for details.

Before you begin your application you may register for an account with the site or, by completing the Collection Survey, you will initiate the account registration process.

  1. Collection Survey
    Complete the Collection Survey. This information will inform the grantee selection process and the allocation of funds, so is important to provide as much information possible. The survey extends beyond this RFP and you are encouraged to complete the survey even if you are not applying for project funds.
  2. Signature Form
    Please print and sign the Signature Form. You may upload it from your organization’s proposal page (after completing the collection survey) or submit via fax (617–300-1056), email or mail to Courtney Michael.
  3. Budget
    Provide a detailed budget that includes the time, materials, and estimated expenses for all project activities, including direct and indirect costs. See Sample Budget. You may upload it from your organization’s proposal page (after completing the collection survey) or submit via fax (617–300-1056), email or mail to Courtney Michael.

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