ShelfmarkforBayview County Public Library 01The cover

Fourteen drawers.
One library.

Shelfmark’s response to Bayview County Public Library’s RFP BCPL-26-014, to modernize all fourteen branches over five years.

Open the catalog
Submitted 31 October 2026Valid 120 daysResponse to RFP sections 1 to 6

You wrote the brief.
We read every line.

Four sentences from RFP BCPL-26-014 that the rest of this proposal answers, in order.

“Our branches close at six on weekdays, which is when most working residents are free to come.”

RFP §1.2 Statement of need

“Staff spend their best hours scanning returns when they could be running programs.”

RFP §1.4 Staff time

“A hold can take a week to cross the county. Residents give up and buy the book.”

RFP §2.3 Holds and delivery

“Any change must keep every branch feeling like a neighborhood library, and no staff position may be lost.”

RFP §4.1 Constraints
42hrsAverage open hours a week per branch, with every branch dark by 6 p.m. on weekdays
6.4daysAverage time from placing a hold to the book reaching the shelf
24daysAverage wait for a popular ebook or audiobook
18percentDrop in visits at the six smallest branches since 2019

Figures from RFP Appendix C, branch statistics for fiscal year 2025.

Pull a drawer.
Every branch has its own plan.

Fourteen drawers, one per branch. Drag one down or tap it, then flip through the cards to see what changes in that building and when.

Opened 1 of 14 drawersUse the arrow keys to move between drawers

One Tuesday
at Willet Road.

Scroll through the day. Staffed hours stay exactly where they are. Open Plus fills the dark ends of the day with card entry, cameras and a librarian on call.

6:00a.m.

Open now, today0
Open now, with Shelfmark0
Today
With Shelfmark
6a10a2p6p10p
Staffed, unchangedOpen Plus, card entry

Across the ten branches that suit it, that’s 360 more open hours a week, from 582 to 942. Every staffed shift stays on the schedule.

Stamped
and due.

Five years, three install waves, every milestone on one slip. Each branch closes for two weekdays during its install and no more.

Date dueShelfmark, BCPL-26-014

Three waves, busiest branches first.

Four signatures.
Four different questions.

Each chapter starts with the question we’d expect in the room, then gives you a way to check our answer yourself.

“What happens to my staff?”

Ruth, County Librarian

Nobody loses a job. That’s written into the contract at clause 4, and every hour the machines take back goes to programs. Tick the tasks self-service and sorting take off your team and see what it adds up to across fourteen branches.

Your team decides what to do with the time. We bring a program menu from comparable county systems, and you pick.

Staff hours given back, every week
0staff hours a week across the county
0full-time roles’ worth of time
0new 90-minute programs a week, from a quarter of that time

“When is my branch closed, and for how long?”

Fourteen branch managers

Two weekdays, once. Tagging happens after close, training happens in the quiet mid-week mornings, and someone from Shelfmark stands on your floor for the whole first week live. Pick your branch to see your three weeks.

One install lead per branch, one phone number, from survey to sign-off.

Your install, day by day
SurveyTagging after closeClosedStaff trainingGo liveShelfmark on the floor

“Will it run on what we have, and who holds the patron data?”

Dev, Chief Information Officer, County IT

It runs on what you have. We connect through open library standards, sign in through the county’s existing identity system, and keep patron records in the county’s own cloud tenancy. Open each system to see how it connects and what your team does.

Patron data never leaves county-owned storage, and we sign your data-processing terms as written.

Your systems, one at a time

“What do residents get, and what does it cost them?”

The County Board, five supervisors

Pick your district. You’ll see the branches your residents use, the hours added, and what the full program costs per resident per year, which moves with the price section below.

No new levy. The bid fits inside the capital plan the Board approved in March 2026, paid over five fiscal years.

Your district

    The price,
    line by line.

    Every line drops on its own and says what Bayview gives up. The total opens at our bid, and the payment schedule redraws as you go.

    Total$9,800,000

    The full bid

    $9,800,000

    All fourteen branches on self-service, Open Plus at ten, four maker spaces, the platform, and a $250,000 a year fund for ebooks. This is the version that answers all four sentences you wrote.

    Branches first

    $8,705,000

    Same base, same install crew, same platform. Two maker spaces instead of four and a $150,000 fund. Residents get the hours and the faster holds, and maker spaces wait for a later budget.

    We’d sign the full bid. The two extra maker spaces sit at Northgate and Lantern Bay, the districts with the fewest after-school places, and the fund is what brings the ebook wait under ten days.

    The terms,
    in plain words.

    The full contract follows the county’s standard form. These are the parts worth reading twice.

    1. Fixed price. The total you choose is the total you pay. Hardware price rises after signing are ours to carry.
    2. Paid on milestones. The county pays when a branch goes live and passes its sign-off walk, never in advance.
    3. The county owns everything. Hardware, patron data and the catalog records belong to Bayview from the day they’re installed.
    4. No staff cuts. Clause 4 bars using this program to remove a library position. Breaking it is grounds to end the contract.
    5. Two closed days per branch. If an install runs over, we pay the branch’s daily operating cost for every extra day.
    6. Five years of support, with parts replaced inside two business days and a person answering the phone.
    7. A clean exit. The county can end the contract with 90 days’ notice after year two. We hand over every record in open formats.

    What we don’t know yet.

    1. Kestrel Point and Old MillBoth buildings are leased. Card-entry doors need the landlords’ written yes, so we’ve left them out of Open Plus until we have it.
    2. Staffing agreementOpen Plus hours are unstaffed by design. Library staff’s union should see the plan before the Board votes, and we’ll join that meeting.
    3. Network at Marrow CreekThe branch runs on a single consumer line. We’ve priced a business line, but the county’s network team may have a cheaper route.
    4. Fund carry-overWe don’t yet know whether unspent ebook fund money can roll into the next fiscal year under county rules.
    Every RFP requirement, mapped to an answerOpen the matrixClose
    RFPRequirementWhere we answer itStatus
    §1.2Extend access beyond staffed hoursOne Tuesday at Willet Road, Open Plus lineMet
    §1.4Return staff time to programsCounty Librarian chapterMet
    §2.1Self-service at every branchThe catalog drawers, self-service lineMet
    §2.3Holds delivered within two daysThe new catalog, sorting lineMet, next day
    §2.6Maker spaces in at least three districtsMaker spaces lineMet, four
    §3.1Single app for print and digitalDigital lending lineMet
    §3.4Patron data in county-owned storageCounty IT chapterMet
    §4.1No loss of staff positionsTerms, clause 4Met
    §4.3Branch closures under five daysBranch managers chapterMet, two
    §5.2Open Plus at all fourteen branchesWhat we don’t know yetPartly, ten of fourteen

    Sign
    the card.

    If the panel shortlists us, here’s what happens next.

    1. Shortlist presentation at the Central branch, with a working self-service kiosk you can try.
    2. A walk-through of Kestrel Point and Old Mill with both landlords, to settle the two open doors.
    3. Board vote, then contract signature and the program office opens at Central on 12 January 2027.
    Ask us a question

    Questions go to Mara, our bid lead, and get an answer within one business day.

    Bayview County Public LibraryBCPL-26-014
    SignerSignature
    County LibrarianRuth
    Branch managersOn behalf of 14
    County ITDev
    County BoardChair
    ShelfmarkMara, for Shelfmark
    ACCEPTED