MedlinePlus® Go Local Subcontracts
Request for Proposals
The National Network of Libraries of Medicine Greater Midwest Region (NN/LM GMR)
under contract with the National Library of Medicine (NLM) 
announces the availability of the
MedlinePlus Go Local subcontracts for network members. The GMR plans to offer three awards funded for up to $25,000 in the current contract year (May, 2008 – April, 2009).
Receipt of a Go Local subcontract is contingent on approval of the Go Local project by NLM.
If you have questions or require assistance call your GMR
State Contact Librarian
at 1-800-338-7657 and press one (1) for the Regional Network Office; or send an email to 
.
More information about MedlinePlus Go Local can be found at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/golocal.html .
Purpose
The primary purpose of MedlinePlus Go Local subcontracts is to provide support to libraries and other groups interested in creating and maintaining a Go Local site for their state or region. MedlinePlus’s Go Local project links MedlinePlus users to health services in their local community and directs users of the Go Local site to MedlinePlus health topics.
Submitting a Go Local Proposal
Applicants should send a proposal addressing how the Go Local site will meet the needs outlined in this document.
Include a timeline for the project (including when you expect you will be being ready to start inputting data and to make the
site public). You must decide whether to take part using the NLM Go Local system or with a locally supported system.
Use the checklist (Attachment 1 
) to prepare your proposal.
Proposals should be emailed to Ruth Holst, Associate Director: rholst at uic.edu
The GMR will forward your proposal to the National Library of Medicine for consideration, and you will hear back from them within a few weeks.
Accepted participants begin and launch on an agreed-upon schedule.
If you have other questions not answered here, please submit the form at
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/cgi/medlineplus/feedback.pl
and be sure to include "Go Local" in the subject line. There is also a Go Local Participants Discussion List with searchable
archives at http://list.nih.gov/archives/mplus-golocal.html .
Eligibility
Proposals will be accepted from NN/LM GMR Full and Affiliate Members. If an affiliate member wishes to apply, they must do one of the following:
a. Partner with a Full Member, or
b. Have a health sciences librarian working on the project.
NLM Requirements and Guidelines
Institutional SupportGo Local sites must show institutional commitment through a written proposal that addresses meeting the needs described in this document. Institutional support is essential to the long-term success of the project and continuity of the service for the residents of the state or region. Institutional support can include items such as staff salaries, supplies, workstations, space, etc.
Geographic CoverageTo be most useful to the public, proposals should cover as large a geographic area and/or population as practical: for example, an entire state, or major portion of that state in either geography or population (e.g., a metropolitan statistical area) or a multi-state region that covers a large geographic area or population.
Exceptions will be considered for proposals which provide service to special populations, including large underserved areas. These geographic guidelines do not apply to earlier proposals for projects begun before September 2004. If NLM receives overlapping proposals, we will ask the participants to work together or negotiate the coverage.
Selection GuidelinesGo Local sites must collect Web sites of local health services and providers. Services to collect include:
state and local health departments, medical centers and clinics, practitioners, libraries, local voluntary health agency chapters,
and support groups. Some suggestions for selection guidelines are provided (Attachment 2 ).
Go local sites should not include locally created health information. While locally created health information is not appropriate
for Go Local, you may wish to consider suggesting these resources for MedlinePlus. The MedlinePlus selection guidelines are at
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/criteria.html .
Please note information about common conditions is available from national resources, so local resources would not be included.
Indexing the services to local terms allows the systems to link back and forth.
Mapping from MedlinePlus requires assigning subject terms to each local record.
Records are also geographically indexed by city, county, zip code, and state if more than one state is in a region.
You may wish to look at the Go Local manual (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/golocal/Go_Local_Manual.docx) 
for more details. If you encounter any difficulty in opening file formats new to Microsoft Office 2007, you can use the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007.
There must be a salaried director dedicated at least .5 FTE to the project. There also needs to be local computer support for maintaining needed plug-ins on the computers used for input. The number of staff needed depends on the support model used. There are many ways to support a Go Local project for collection development, promotion, etc. It may be through committees, volunteers, institutional support, or other means.
Promotion and OutreachThere should be publicity for Go Local sites to promote use and help collection development (for example, “Suggest a Site”). Sites are expected to send brief summaries of outreach efforts to NLM quarterly. During the NC Health Info development and launch, UNC conducted promotion and outreach efforts aimed at healthcare workers and associations, librarians, the media, the public and others. Press releases, presentations,
listserv and other activities can be found at: http://www.nchealthinfo.org/Documentation/3_Outreach/Outreach_Overview.doc .
A Go Local site needs to provide customer service for users who have questions about the site or consumer health questions. This may be a Web form for users to send questions and suggestions, an interactive chat session or a telephone number to call. Most user inquiries are consumers’ health questions. The local site must also have a means to accept suggestions from users for added services to include.
NLM Requirements and Guidelines – Locally Supported System
TechnicalNLM will maintain the hardware and system software for hosting the records and producing the Go Local Web pages, as well as the vocabulary and mapping between the Go Local applications and MedlinePlus. NLM will also provide training materials for the system. Participants will need PCs with an Internet connection, as well as Internet Explorer and common plug-ins such as Adobe® Flash and Adobe® Reader. Participants will connect through the Internet and log in to the system at NLM to create and edit records. Each state or region must name a project director who will manage the project, make or delegate customizations, and set up or delegate setting up accounts and user rights for their Go Local application. NLM will produce reports of broken links, which should be checked and repaired at least weekly.
Web InterfaceNLM controls the overall organization and design of the Go Local sites, with local customization such as inserting a logo.
The goal is to create sites that are organized logically, labeled clearly, include useful navigation, and are compliant with
accessibility standards (see http://section508.gov ). NLM will provide visual and text links
to geographic regions. Designs are being usability tested, and all pages will include a date and contact information.
NLM will collect and provide user statistics.
NLM Requirements and Guidelines – Locally Supported System
Vocabulary Mapping and MaintenanceFor locally supported systems the indexing vocabulary used must be mapped to the right MedlinePlus topic pages, and the mapping maintained as new topic pages are created. NLM provides XML data with up-to-date details on MedlinePlus health topics. These mappings allow users to go from MedlinePlus health topics to subject-specific local services and from local services pages to MedlinePlus topic pages. Sites must process the XML files at least once a month.
Technical- Provide the hardware and software and have technical expertise to maintain the hardware and software.
- Create and provide training materials for the system, and provide support to those using the system.
- The database created must support local site creation and organize resources by subject, with each subject on a separate page.
- The database must also support the mapping mentioned above under vocabulary.
- The public Web site must meet accessibility standards (at least to DOJ Section 508 standards) and basic usability guidelines, and should be usability tested to discover the quality of the user experience. It must be compatible with the most recent three versions of major browsers.
- Mapping from both visual and text links to geographic areas must be provided in the application.
- The system must be able to handle constant traffic from MedlinePlus 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and be maintained to high IT standards with suitable redundancy and security. MedlinePlus currently delivers over 60 million pages a month.
- Broken links should be checked and repaired at least weekly.
For projects not yet available to the public, reports should include:
- Progress in relation to timeline
- Current staff and their roles
- Work done to create the site
- Outreach and promotion efforts
For Go Local projects already available to the public, include:
- Current staff and their roles
- Major changes or additions made to the database
- Monthly, quarterly and annual page views and unique visitors*
- The proportion of these stats attributable to MedlinePlus topic page referrals*
- List of any down times that occurred during the quarter*
- Outreach and promotion efforts
*applies to locally hosted projects only
Reports should be submitted by the 15th of each month of the new quarter (January, April, July, October), to both the GMR and the National Library of Medicine.
Proposal Cost Instructions
The respondent should submit a detailed budget providing a breakdown of and justification for the costs included in each category. A narrative justification for the budget items is required and must accompany the budget form.
Total cost must not exceed $25,000.
Funding will be processed on a cost reimbursement basis. Line item invoices must be submitted for reimbursement of expenditures. Reimbursement takes an average of four weeks.
For IT/Computer Hardware, please include the following as part of your cost proposal:
- At a minimum list equipment type (printer, scanner, etc.), brand name and model number.
- For IT/Computer Hardware under $3,000, submit catalog pricing.
- For IT/Computer Hardware of $3,000 or more, submit three (3) vendor quotes (preferably valid for 60 days). Quotes may include General Service Administration (GSA) price lists (Reference: http://www.gsa.gov). Vendor quotes are necessary to determine price reasonableness for purchases. If item is over $3,000 and not competed, then a sole source justification letter is required to indicate why it is the most advantageous purchase.
Criteria for NN/LM Funding of MedlinePlus Go Local Projects can be found in Attachment 3 . In addition to these criteria, the GMR is placing a limit on indirect costs.
Indirect costs may be included on these projects but should be limited to
no more than 20% of the total budget, which cannot exceed $25,000,
including indirect costs.
Period of Performance
The Period of Performance for the project is ongoing. The period of performance for the subcontract should be twelve months. The project components to be paid out of the subcontract budget must be completed and invoiced to the GMR within 30 days after the end of the designated period of performance on the subcontract.
If this project results in a manuscript that will be submitted for publication, project personnel must follow the requirements outlined in the NIH Public Access Policy ( http://publicaccess.nih.gov)
which mandates submission within 12 months of publication to the NIH manuscript submission (NIHMS)
system (http://www.nihms.nih.gov
) at PubMed
Central (PMC) the author's final manuscript, resulting from activities and/or research supported in whole or in part
with direct costs from this award. NIH defines the author's final manuscript as the final version accepted for
journal publication, and includes all modifications from the publishing peer review process. PMC is the NIH digital repository
of full-text, peer-reviewed biomedical, behavioral, and clinical research journals. It is a publicly-accessible, permanent, and
searchable electronic archive available on the Internet at
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/ for
use by the public, health care providers, educators, scientists and the NIH. Additional information is available at:
http://grants.nih.gov/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-05-022.html
.
This icon designates a link outside the NN/LM GMR Web site and
indicates a non-GMR hosted resource.
