The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) sent a data call on October 1 to the heads of procurement in the executive branch.  Judicial and legislative branches were copied and we would welcome their participation.  You may want to contact your procurement office to see if they need your assistance in collecting complete information on electronic databases and subscriptions purchased for your agency.  The text of the message is below. 

FEDLINK is working with agencies to increase the use and availability of strategically sourced vehicles.  The most recently identified initiative involves the strategic sourcing of electronic database and subscription services for Legal and Scientific/Technical/Engineering/Mathematical (STEM) information sources, and the Library of Congress (LOC) Federal Library and Information Network (FEDLINK - www.loc.gov/flicc/) is the executive agent for this new Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative (FSSI).  This message asks for your assistance in collecting information on prices paid by agencies for such services by October 19, 2012.  We encourage you to work with your agency librarians and information resources teams as they may be in the best position to provide the requested data.

This pricing information will be used to improve the acquisition planning process for strategically sourcing these items in FY2013. The FEDLINK staff will compare similar items and prices to better understand the market and establish an FSSI vehicle that reduces the government’s cost to procure these services.  FEDLINK is planning to make these new strategic sourcing vehicles available in mid-FY2013 to all agencies.

To facilitate collection of this information, LOC has developed a MAX collect tool available at https://max.omb.gov/community/x/-4_yJQ.  Access to the site is limited, so please provide Aaron Chaletzky [log in to unmask] with the name(s) of those entering information, and with which Agency/Bureau they are associated so appropriate permissions can be granted.

For questions on the MAX Collect exercise, please contact Aaron Chaletzky with FEDLINK at [log in to unmask].  General questions on this effort or other strategic sourcing initiatives may be directed to Karen Pica at [log in to unmask].

Thank you for your assistance with this effort.