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About Louis

The American Printing House for the Blind (APH) maintains and promotes the Louis Database of Accessible Materials for People who are Blind or Visually Impaired. Louis contains information on nearly 200,000 titles in accessible formats including braille, large print, sound recording, and electronic files. Information is contributed by over 180 agencies throughout the United States.

Louis is available free on the Web. Just go to the APH web site at www.aph.org and follow the links for Louis. Once you have arrived at your chosen search screen, you can click on the link for Search Hints for additional help.

Resource Services:
Phone: 800-223-1839, ext. 705
E-mail: resource@aph.org
Fax: 502-899-2363

Listing titles on Louis:

There are very few requirements for agencies or individuals who want to add their titles to the Louis Database:

1. The first step is to send a letter to Resource Services stating that you wish to file your titles in Louis. The letter should include: name/agency name, address, phone number, fax number, e-mail address and contact person. It is important to remember that you must be willing to exchange, sell, or lend the materials nationwide.
2. Upon receipt of your contact information, we will send you a sample Louis form for filing Intentions and Completions. The form can also be downloaded from our web site at Louis Form (Word 6.0 file).
3. For each title, please send photocopies of the front and back of the title page, along with a completed Intention form. This step is extremely important to accurately list your title in Louis.
4. When the item has been produced and is available, send in a Completion form. (It is not necessary to send photocopies of the book, except in cases where no Intention form was previously filed.)

The Louis forms can also be requested from APH for those who do not have Internet access. Just contact Resource Services at (502) 899-2705.

Some additional information about submitting titles:

Please submit an Intention form each time you begin a new braille transcription or sound recording project.

Please do not submit Intention forms for large print items. Only Completions are entered in the database for large print.

If your titles are already listed with the Library of Congress National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS), please do not submit titles to be listed on Louis.

If an agency lists over 500 titles on the database, APH requests that the agency contribute $500.00 per year to help support Louis, if possible. An invoice is mailed to those agencies each January. This amount allows us to meet our goal of keeping access to Louis free to all users.

APH File Repository

Louis also contains over 4,500 downloadable electronic files which are available for use in braille production. A repository account must be set up in order to download files. Because of publisher agreements and copyright restrictions, repository acounts are available only to Ex Officio Trustees of APH and "authorized entities" as defined by the 1996 Chafee Amendment to the Copyright Law. Files are either braille files created by APH or other agencies, or publisher files (usually ASCII format). A nominal fee of $25 is charged per download. For additional information about the repository, see About the APH File Repository.

To do a search only for downloadable files in Louis, do your search as normal but limit your search by selecting "Downloadable Repository Files" in the "medium" box. Please contact your Ex Officio Trustee for download requests. All other questions can be answered by contacting APH Resource Services, resource@aph.org or by phone at 1-800-223-1839, ext. 705.

Louis Training Program

APH is currently sponsoring a training program. The program has been designed to help users learn, practice, and thoroughly test the different search options of the database.

The goal of the training is to help users learn to retrieve information that is useful and relevant to work, study, and personal interests. The type of searches and the time allowed for hands-on training will depend on the interests of the group, as well as the level of computer proficiency. The training is provided anywhere in the continental U.S., and can accommodate different age groups.

For more information about the program, please contact:

Maria E. Delgado
Louis Database Field Representative
Phone: (502) 899- 2340
E-mail: mdelgado@aph.org

We hope this answers your questions! Please feel free to call or e-mail if we can be of further assistance.

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