Accession Number: 2000.142.1
Scope & Content: CIAPHR (Coalition for Information Access for Print Handicapped Readers) files, 1988-1993, include minutes, press releases, reports, correspondence and memos. APH-CARL (Central Automated Resource List) files, 1987-1997, include brochures/flyers/ads, minutes, correspondence and memos, press releases, Central Catalog material, redesign and methodology records, and CARL ET AL manuals.
Creator: American Printing House for the Blind. Resource Services Dept.
Interview Date: / /
Collection: APH Archives / RG 13: Resource Services
Credit Line: APH Archives
Administrative History: In 1987, the American Printing House for the Blind (APH) introduced APH-CARL (Central Automated Resource List), a computerized database listing books in accessible media produced by APH for blind and visually impaired students and by volunteer and commercial agencies that submitted titles for inclusion. The database, which was available for searching to outside users via a computer network, had evolved from the Central Catalog, a card catalog that initially listed volunteer-transcribed textbooks, to help consumers and producers locate existing titles available in accessible format and to eliminate duplicate production of titles. From 1969 until 1994, the Central Catalog was also produced as a standard print book. In 1988, CIAPHR (Coalition for Information Access for Print Handicapped Readers) was formed by leading blindness agencies in the U.S. and Canada, including the American Printing House for the Blind, interested in developing a centralized database that included "all materials produced in braille, large print and recorded form in North America." Surveys conducted earlier by a networking task force of the American Foundation for the Blind had clearly indicated the need for a comprehensive centralized database. In 1990, CIAPHR conducted a "Survey of Agencies Producing and/or Distributing Books in Alternate Formats," with the resulting data to be used in recommendations for the database. In minutes of its September 1991 meeting, CIAPHR notes that the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped and the American Printing House for the Blind will maintain parallel databases and exchange information. In 1994, APH announced that it was replacing APH-CARL with CARL ET AL, an expanded online database of over 120,000 records listing braille and large type books and pamphlets, music scores, electronic books, sound recordings, software programs, and tactile graphics "created by hundreds of agencies across North America (volunteer, government, non-profit, and commercial)."
Subjects: Online catalogs
Rights: Contact museum staff regarding reproduction of materials.