CPV 925 – Library, Archive, Museum and Other Cultural Services

What does CPV 925 cover?

CPV group 925 covers services for libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions. These include library services such as collection development, cataloguing, and the digitisation of books and media, archive services for the development and maintenance of historical holdings, museum services such as exhibition concept and design, the restoration and conservation of cultural objects, cultural education programmes and mediation, and the operation of cultural centres and memorial sites.

Municipalities and states are the most important contracting authorities in this area: municipal libraries tender collection development and digital borrowing solutions, municipal archives award finding aid and digitisation services, and museums commission exhibition design and restoration works. The federal government procures services for state museums (e.g. the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation), the Federal Archives, and federal memorial sites.

The digitisation of cultural assets is a growing procurement field: many archives and libraries procure mass digitisation services for their collections to make them available online. The development of digital exhibitions, virtual museum tours, and interactive educational offers is also increasingly being tendered. Further information on the CPV system is available from the European Commission (SIMAP) and Regulation (EC) No 213/2008.

Typical Services in CPV 925

Examples of Tenders with CPV 925

• Digitisation of historical city archive holdings: A city archive tenders the digitisation of 500,000 archive items (files, maps, photographs) — with scan resolution to DFG guidelines, OCR text recognition, metadata creation, quality control, and delivery in standardised formats.
• Exhibition design for a city museum: A municipal city museum procures the design of a permanent exhibition on city history — with curatorial concept, exhibition architecture, media technology, descriptions in plain language, accessibility, and lighting and audio concept.
• Digital borrowing solution for a library consortium: A regional library consortium with eight sites tenders a platform for e-book, e-audio, and e-paper borrowing — with unlimited simultaneous loans, app functionality, GDPR compliance, statistics dashboard, and library management system integration.

Current tenders with CPV 925 are published on TED (Tenders Electronic Daily) and on national procurement platforms such as the German Procurement Portal (DTVP).

Who is CPV 925 relevant for?

Public Contracting Authorities

Municipalities, rural districts, and states as operators of public libraries, archives, and museums are the most important contracting authorities. The federal government procures for state cultural institutions, the Federal Archives, and federal memorial sites. University libraries and special collection libraries tender extensive procurements for collections and digitisation.

Companies and Bidders

Library service providers, booksellers with library services, digitisation companies, museum designers, restoration studios, exhibition agencies, and cultural education providers are typical bidders. Subject-specific qualifications (library science, restoration, museology), references from comparable projects, and technical certifications are required. Further information on eligibility requirements and procurement procedures is available from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK).

How does Bond help with CPV 925?

Tender Match – Automatically Find Tenders (CPV 925)

With tender.match, library service providers and cultural service companies automatically receive all relevant tenders with CPV 925 directly in their dashboard. BOND indexes tenders from over 1,000 procurement portals in the EU – from TED to national platforms and regional contracting authorities. Instead of manually searching dozens of portals every day, matching cultural and library contracts are filtered and delivered by industry, competency, region, and company profile. An automated gap analysis immediately shows where the company meets the requirements and where gaps exist. This ensures companies never miss a deadline and can focus on preparing their bids.

Company Match – Find the Right Partners (CPV 925)

For companies looking for suppliers, subcontractors, or consortium partners for cultural projects, company.match provides direct access to qualified firms from an EU-wide database of over 28 million companies. Especially for larger digitisation and exhibition projects that a single company cannot handle alone, company.match automatically identifies suitable partners for bidding consortia and partial services – increasing the chances of winning the contract.

Frequently Asked Questions about CPV 925

Are book purchases for libraries subject to competitive tendering?

Yes, where the total contract value exceeds the relevant threshold. For supply contracts, the EU threshold of €221,000 currently applies (for other public contracting authorities). Libraries frequently enter into framework contracts with booksellers, which must be tendered accordingly. Note that books as cultural goods may have characteristics that must be taken into account in procedure design.

What particular requirements apply to restoration services?

Restoration and conservation services for cultural objects require specific qualifications: state-recognised training as a conservator-restorer (Bachelor/Master), evidence of specialism (e.g. paper, paintings, metal), references from comparable projects, and where applicable certification by the Verband der Restauratoren (VDR). Procurement follows the VgV for service contracts.

How do I find tenders with CPV 925?

Tenders are published on TED (Tenders Electronic Daily) for EU-wide procedures and on the German Procurement Portal (DTVP) for national procedures. Bond automatically aggregates all relevant tenders from over 1,000 portals and delivers them filtered by company profile.