000727 Digital Radio Archive Management System

The Library is recognised as the home of the nation's radio archive. The current radio collection comprises around 250,000 hours. Additionally, via a longstanding arrangement with the BBC the Library also provides the only UK point of research access to the extensive radio collections of the BBC Archives. However, of the estimated 3m hours of radio broadcast in the UK each year from c.700 stations, the Library is capturing a mere 15,000 hours (mostly news-based content). It is estimated that 92% of current UK radio is not being properly preserved, with only 2% being made available for potential research post-transmission.

The minimum requirements for a successful pilot will be to deliver a capture and management solution for AV broadcast media, which will enable the British Library to record off-air between 12 and 18 hours per channel, per day, from a combination of national and local radio stations from across UK (up to 300,000 hours per year); to preserve these recordings in the British Library's Digital Library System; and to make them accessible (with published and derived metadata) through British Library access systems.

To address this situation we plan to create a digital radio archive, based on off-air recording, which will preserve a proportion of ongoing UK radio output (emphasising speech-based content), and make this available for research. The first step is to build a pilot radio archive over a period of two years, covering up to 50 stations from across the UK, to be developed thereafter into a full service. The pilot will test technologies, scalability, sustainability, research use and integration with British Library systems.

Additional information:

Suppliers Instructions How to Express Interest in this Tender~: 1. Register your company on the eSourcing portal (this is only required once): https://bl.bravosolution.co.uk and click the link to register - Accept the terms and conditions and click 'I agree' - Enter your correct business and user details - Note the username you chose and click 'Save' when complete - You will shortly receive an email with your unique password (please keep this secure) 2. Express an Interest in the tender - Login to the portal with the username/password - Click the 'PQQs Open To All Suppliers' link. (These are Pre-Qualification Questionnaires or Invitations to Tender open to any registered supplier) - Click on the relevant PQQ to access the content. - Click the 'Express Interest' button at the top of the page. - This will move the PQQ into your 'My PQQs' page. (This is a secure area reserved for your projects only) -You can now access any attachments by clicking 'Buyer Attachments' in the 'PQQ Details' box 3. Responding to the tender - Click 'My Response' under 'PQQ Details', you can choose to 'Create Response' or to 'Decline to Respond' (please give a reason if declining) - You can now use the 'Messages' function to communicate with the buyer and seek any clarification - Note the deadline for completion, then follow the onscreen instructions to complete the PQQ - There may be a mixture of online and offline actions for you to perform (there is detailed online help available) You must then submit your reply using the 'Submit Response' button at the top of the page. If you require any further assistance please consult the online help, or contact the eTendering help desk.