Active SLED Opportunity · MASSACHUSETTS · CITY OF CAMBRIDGE
AI Summary
City of Cambridge seeks bids for scanning and digitization services of legislative records. Bids must be submitted electronically by April 30, 2026, 12:00 pm ET.
The City of Cambridge would like to invite you to submit a bid for Scanning and Digitization Services of City of Cambridge Legislative Records. If submitting electronically, Bids are to be submitted through the Procurement Portal at https://procurement.opengov.com/portal/cambridgema. Bids are to be submitted no later than 12:00 pm on Thursday, April 30, 2026.
The Cambridge City Clerk is the primary custodian and record keeper for the City of Cambridge. The Clerk’s Office houses the city’s permanent records collections, along with specialized collections documenting the city’s political formations and activity. It’s largest collection, the Cambridge City Council documents (hereinafter described as “legislative records”) tracks the activity of the city’s departments, committees, and boards throughout Cambridge’s history, from its formation as a town in 1630 through its incorporation as a city in 1846, and to the present day. The Records Management and Archives (RMA) program is housed under the Clerk’s Office and is responsible for supporting the City Clerk’s staff in maintaining the permanent collections, as well as supporting the city’s departments with their archival needs.
The City Clerk’s office has undertaken two previous digitization projects of the City Council collection for records dated 1916 to the present. The legislative records for this third and final project reflect pre-1916 documents, along with various records that relate to the first two projects. The project described herewith is the third and, possibly, largest project the Clerk’s Office has undertaken to digitize this collection, with the goal of making the records available to the public. The RMA team will supervise the final phase of the City Council records digitization.
The records for this third project (herein described as “the project) are present in a variety of formats: predominantly loose papers, but also pamphlets, booklets, extra-long records (petition signature pages that are taped or glued together end to end), and document bundles. The records are organized according to their series name, and then chronologically by year. The collection will be delivered to the vendor in alphabetical order by series name for better tracking throughout the project term.
The records in these document bundles begin at the petition phase, where residents raise specific issues to the City Council. Relevant communications are included, and the bundle ends with the orders and reports submitted by the Council that mark the petition’s final resolution. These bundles were tied again with archival-quality cotton tying tape and the document packets are held together with archival-quality clips. All efforts were made to ensure the documents are held together with archival-quality materials and only in rare instances are non-archival materials used.
The petition signature sheets are records that were glued end-to-end before they were submitted to the City Council for review. These petitions belong primarily to the Streets and Railways series, but some petitions belong to other series within the collection.
The City Clerk’s Records Management and Archives (RMA) team has taken the proper precautions to roll these petitions to minimize excess wear on these delicate documents. The petitions are stored together in the final boxes of the collection and can be sent out last to give the approved vendor time to properly digitize the petitions.
The records are present in a range of conditions, paper sizes, paper types, and quantities. Some records are in pristine condition while others have been extensively damaged. A small portion of the collection has been exposed to water and mold, and in the most extreme cases, sustained rust damage. The RMA program staff removed mold when necessary and restored the documents as best as possible under the document preparation constraints. The vendor will need to complete light brushing of the documents to remove excess dust to ensure that the image quality remains at the highest level.
The paper in the collection varies from lined paper to high gloss paper to fragile tracing paper, all of which present their own challenges. Additionally, the records are not always consistent in size. The vendor will be responsible for verifying they are using the best equipment for them for each type of paper in the collection, thus ensuring as clear an image as possible. The records are a mix of single- and double-sided formats and there are many records written on booklet-style paper. We ask that the vendor not cut the records for ease of scanning, as we are attempting to limit further damage to the collection.
The RMA team worked to preserve the collections’ original order, so the Clerk’s Office asks the vendor to process and return the documents as they are delivered to the vendor. The City Council records are so extensive the City Clerk’s Office created several series corresponding to the specific committee, board, or department, and in five cases, subseries to ensure even greater organization. All this information is documented and organized in the electronic inventories that will be provided to the vendor.
For a pre-bid viewing opportunity to review sample documents, please contact Barbara Carrera at bcarrera@cambridgema.gov to schedule a meeting time. Documents are stored at Cambridge City Hall:
City Hall - Room 307
795 Massachusetts Avenue,
Cambridge, MA 02139
Available scheduled time slots are below. Please email Barbara Carrera for scheduling viewing appointments.
RESPONSIBILITY OF THE CITY
City Clerk’s Records Management and Archives team
The RMA program under the City Clerk’s office has prepared the documents for vendor handling. This consists of three phases of work: phase one includes unfolding records, phase two is organizing the records to ensure they are grouped by the appropriate committee, board, or department, and numbering the individual documents for scanning and naming, and phase three creates indices for reference throughout the project and for end users once the documents are digitized. The first two phases are complete, and the RMA team continues to work on phase 3. Once the vendor is identified, there will be sufficient boxes ready for the vendor to begin digitization. The RMA team has removed mold from the records for safe handling by all involved. Finally, once the documents are sent out for scanning and returned by the vendor, the RMA team will perform a secondary quality control verification of the records as they are electronically delivered to Omeka. The RMA team will work closely with the City’s Information Technology team to establish this process and ensure proper access for reviewing the incoming records.
Information Technology team
All document indices will be provided to the vendor for verification purposes, and the vendor will be responsible for final submission of all records into a designated FTP site. The City of Cambridge Information Technology (IT) department will be responsible for ensuring the vendor’s designated team members have appropriate access to the City Clerk’s document management system for faster delivery of the final, digitized records. The IT team will also work with the vendor to coordinate the importation of metadata records and their proper alignment with the corresponding records and advise the RMA team on best practices for preparing the metadata of the collection.
RESPONSIBILITY OF THE SELECTED VENDOR
Vendor Responsibilities
The vendor will be required to perform light to medium dusting of the documents, remove all metal fasteners from the documents and apply plastiklips to the grouped records, digitize the records in a manner that will not further damage them, maintain the original order in which documents are received, and perform quality control measures on all documents to ensure that the documents are legible, not blurry, and meet best industry standards. The vendor shall return all unused archival-quality Plasitklips to the City Clerk's Office at the end of the project. The City Clerk’s Office uses the following naming convention, to reflect the series name, year, and document number: seriesname_year_documentnumber. For instance, we will name our documents “Appointments_1879_0025” and have the document name listed in the document inventories. The vendor will be responsible for naming all electronic records consistently using the above naming convention.
Attention to detail and diligence in ensuring the highest quality image is produced for each document is of utmost importance. The City Clerk also requests weekly reports be delivered to the Records Management and Archives Manager, the designated project manager, and that the vendor provide updates on any issues or questions throughout the digitization process. The Clerk’s Office asks that the vendor coordinate the return of records to the City Clerk’s office once all the records are digitized, reviewed for quality, and verified that final delivery to the FTP site is complete.
The vendor must follow established protocols, meet scheduling requirements, provide quick, responsive customer service, and ultimately deliver electronic files that have been prepared to the City Clerk’s specifications in such a way that they can be sorted and coded. The vendor will have an opportunity to view the documents on site prior to the start of the scanning project.
The following criteria must be met:
Project Initiation:
Standards:
Archival Record | Spatial Resolution | Bit-Depth | Optimal Format | Acceptable Format |
B & W printed text documents | 300-400 PPI | B & W | PDF/A | |
Handwritten text documents | 300-400 PPI | Grayscale | PDF/A | |
Damaged text documents | 300-600 PPI | Grayscale | PDF/A | |
B & W photographs | 300-600 PPI | Grayscale | TIFF | JPEG |
Color photographs | 300-600 PPI | Color | TIFF | JPEG |
Oversized materials | 300-600 PPI | Grayscale or Color | TIFF | JPEG |
Documents:
• Appointments_1917_0060
• Appointments_1917_0061
• Appointments_1917_0062
Sample CSV Format:
Document Name | Appointee Name | Appointed To | Date | Record Type |
Appointments_1917_0060 | Jack Smith | Constable without power | May 1, 1917 | Appointment |
Appointments_1917_0061 | Jane Doe | Trustee of the Cambridge City Hospital | May 7, 1917 | Appointment |
Appointments_1917_0062 | Jack Doe | Member of the Cambridge Planning Board | May 7, 1917 | Appointment |
Quality Control
The City’s expectation is for a high level of quality control for images and indexing. Vendor’s quality control measures shall meet the following criteria for all images:
Pickup/Return of Documents
Scanning Process
Delivery of Images
Metadata
File boxes will be labeled with each predefined document type.
Box Number |
Box Description |
Series Name |
Folder Description |
Document Number |
Document Name |
Keyword |
Year |
Date |
Record Type |
Processing Notes |
Please select one
If a corporation, include the State in which you are incorporated in.
If a partnership, include the names of partners.
If an individual, include relevant information.
Please include the name, title, telephone and email address of the authorized representative
The Vendor/Contractor certifies that it has not been and currently is not debarred or suspended by any federal, state, or municipal governmental agency under G. L. c. 29, § 29F or other applicable law, nor will it contract with a debarred or suspended subcontractor on any public contract.
An unchecked response, a failure to respond, or a failure to meet to any of the following Quality Requirements will result in a rejection of your bid. Please check each of the following Quality Requirements as confirmations.
Bidder is able to complete the work as specified in the Scope of Services.
Bidder has professional grade equipment to scan both documents and photographic prints and provide image enhancement.
Bidder has experience working with/for municipalities and/or municipal records on at least three (3) similar projects.
Bidder has performed at least five (5) digitization projects of similar size and scope.
Bidder has the ability and experience to identify multi-page documents, especially in instances when the documents may not appear to join together, such as summaries connected with government documents or correspondence with enclosures.
Bidder affirms that they will adhere to the Quality Control standards and requirements as outlined in the Scope of Services section above.
Bidders shall submit a list of three references for which the bidder has supplied similar services. References shall include contact information including contact name, addresses and telephone numbers for each to inquire as to their satisfaction with the bidders’ product and service. In addition, the City reserves the right to use itself as a reference, to contact references not listed and to otherwise perform its own due diligence when making a responsibility determination. A bid maybe rejected on the basis of one or more references reporting less than excellent past performance.
Include contact name, address and telephone #
Include contact name, address and telephone #
Include contact name, address and telephone #
Please electronically sign and upload the following documents using this URL: https://cambridgema.na4.adobesign.com/public/esignWidget?wid=CBFCIBAA3AAABLblqZhCD4UnZSN3XyfqZi9ZxGyvlhSnIlYThymiofiiHN4CtIXU4t2tYM27cVaMk7bVx6AI*
Bidder certifies that this bid is made without collusion with any other person, firm or corporation making any other bid or who otherwise would make a bid.
Please upload an anticipated project narrative and projected timelines for this project. The City currently anticipates 99 boxes of records to be transported and scanned in batches of 10.
Example: Office Supplies
Example: Janitorial Services
SLED stands for State, Local, and Education. These are solicitations issued by state governments, counties, cities, school districts, utilities, and higher education institutions — as opposed to federal agencies.
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