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| p. 12 "decreasing the time required to produce each database record, while maintaining or increasing the accuracy, consistency, straightforwardness, and comprehensiveness of database records. | Highlighted words are changes. The Draft did not list elements, it just said "quality." This appears to be an instance of impact from librarian comments. |
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p. 13 ..."Metadata shall indicate document availability..." "The metadata shall facilitate recall and precision..." |
These additions to the requirements were encouraging. |
| p. 15 "The online system will meet ...Department of Education Requirements for Accessible Electronic and Information Technology Design | This section has several significant additions of which this is just an example. The specifications for ensuring that the new system will work and be usable by all are much more robust than they were in the Draft. |
| p. 16 "...system will be fully operational at least 99 percent of every calendar month, and scheduled maintenance and improvements will occur during low-usage hours and will be announced on the website. " | Folks who have complained bitterly about the unreliability of the EDRS/E*Subscribe product should be pleased with this addtion, which is just a sample of similar language throughout the document. |
| p. 17 "A privacy statement specifying that the website does not use cookies and does not store and track personal information; " | This is a change from the draft which specifically allowed temporary cookies. |
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p. 19 "...contractor shall provide brief written usage analysis reports ...to clarify who is using the system, the information they are seeking, their navigation and behavior, and the successfulness of their experiences."
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This is added language and the whole section was changed quite a bit from the corresponding section on p. 17 of the DRAFT. In the current climate all of this might raise some concerns about privacy, but the SOW does remove specific language mandating capture of search terminology, and the immediately preceeding quote is also relevant to the privacy issue. |
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| p. 13 "Beginning one year after contract award, the contractor shall provide an annual report ...documenting decreases in the time required to produce each database record, while increasing the quality and comprehensiveness of database records. | Efficiency seems to be major concern in these changes. |
| p. 13 "the contractor shall provide a brief written assessment of the ERIC Thesaurus to determine changes needed to maximize database searching and retrieval by both inexperienced and experienced database users. The assessment shall also consider changes needed to ensure interoperability with other ED information sources..." |
This is a complex issue tied to metadata and interoperability concerns. The SOW refers to http://www.ed.gov/internal/EDWebMetadata/ and http://www.ed.gov/admin/reference/index.jsp as sources for the contractor to consult. |
| p. 17 "The contractor shall continuously refine the online system, evaluate and recommend new technologies and online products and services for improving the content, infrastructure, interface(s), usability, efficiency, and functionality of the online system. All proposals shall be approved by the COR prior to implementation." [The SOW never defines COR, but it appears to refer to the person at the Department to whom the contractor would report.] | This is one spot that shows how the new contractor will not enjoy the level of autonomy that the Clearinghouses had to add new content or features. |