Developer Center / APIs

Open Library offers a suite of APIs to help developers get up and running with our data. This includes RESTful APIs, which make Open Library data availabile in JSON, YAML and RDF/XML formats. There's also an earlier, now deprecated JSON API which is preserved for backward compatibility.

Try out our interactive OpenAPI sandbox!

Identifying your Application

If your application will make regular, frequent use of Open Library's APIs (e.g. multiple calls per minute), please add a HEADER that specifies a User-Agent string with (a) the name of your application and (b) your contact email or phone number, so we may contact you when we notice high request volume. Failing to include these headers may result in your application being blocked.

For help adding user-agent headers to your API calls, please refer to this javascript and python example.

Index of APIs

• Book Search API - Search results for books, authors, and more
  
• Work & Edition APIs - Retrieve a specific work or edition by identifier
  
• My Books API - Retrieve books on a patron's public reading log
  
• Authors API - Retrieve an author and their works by author identifier
  
• Subjects API - Fetch books by subject name
  
• Search inside API - Search for matching text within millions of books
  
• Partner API -- Formerly the "Read" API, fetch one or more books by library identifiers (ISBNs, OCLC, LCCNs)
  
• Covers API - Fetch book covers by ISBN or Open Library identifier
  
• Recent Changes API - Programatic access to changes across Open Library
  
• Lists API - Reading, modifying, or creating user lists
  
• History of an item can be accessed by appending ?m=history to the page like this.

Bulk Access

Please do not use our APIs for bulk download of Open Library data because this affects our ability to serve patrons. We make our data publicly available each month for partners. If you want a dump of complete data, please read about our Bulk Download options, or email us at [email protected].

More APIs

Did you know, nearly every page on Open Library is or has an API. You can return structured bibliographic data for any page by adding a .rdf/.json/.yml extension to the end of any Open Library identifier. For instance: https://openlibrary.org/works/OL15626917W.json or https://openlibrary.org/authors/OL33421A.json. Many pages, such as the Books, Authors, and Lists, will include links to their RDF and JSON formats.

Questions

We encourage developers to ask questions by opening issues on GitHub and on our gitter chat channel.

Friends using Open Library APIs

Several developers are creating amazing things with the Open Library APIs:

• Trove by the National Library of Australia
  Trove is a new discovery experience focused on Australia and Australians. It supplements what search engines provide with reliable information from Australia's memory institutions. The system hits Open Library when public domain books turn up in searches, and displays links to Open Library.
   
  
• Koha
  Koha is an open source library system for public libraries that includes catalog searches and member organizing. It uses Open Library covers, displays OL related subjects, and lendable eBooks using the Read API.
   
  
• Evergreen
  Evergreen is highly-scalable software for libraries that helps library patrons find library materials, and helps libraries manage, catalog, and circulate those materials. It uses Open Library for covers, tables of contents, with plans to expand into other areas.
   
  
• read.gov by the Library of Congress
  OK, this isn't exactly Open Library, but it's still awesome! The Library of Congress have modified the Internet Archive's Book Reader to sit perfectly within their Rare Books Collection site.
   
  
• OpenBook WordPress Plug-in by John Miedema
  OpenBook is useful for anyone who wants to add book covers and other book data on a WordPress website. OpenBook links to detailed book information in Open Library, the main data source, as well as other book sites. Users have complete control over the display through templates. OpenBook can link to library records by configuring an OpenURL resolver or through a WorldCat link. OpenBook inserts COinS so that other applications like Zotero can pick up the book data.
   
  
• Umlaut by Jason Ronallo
  Umlaut is a middle-tier OpenURL link resolver that adds functions and services to commercial link resolving software.
   
  
• Virtual Shelf by Jonathan Breitbart and Devin Blong (UC Berkeley School of Information)
  The Virtual Shelf is a visualization created by two students at the UC Berkeley School of Information. The project includes the student's master thesis, with research into the searching and browsing patterns of library patrons. The Open Library RESTful API was utilized during the project as a source of metadata for the user interface.
   
  
• RDC UI Toolkit by Rural Design Collective
  This group created a suite of tools that facilitates the creation of localized user interfaces for public domain books. The RDC used the Open Library Covers API and the Internet Archive Book Reader in their online demonstration customized for the OLPC XO.
   
  
• Dreambooks.club by Bernat Fortet
  Dreambooks is a portal and community where parents and children can discover new books to read together. Think of it as the online equivalent of your library's children's corner. All the book data is powered by OpenLibary's API.
   
  
• MyBooks.Life by Mark Webster
  MyBooks.Life is an android app and website designed primarily to manage TBR (to-be-read) lists. You can keep track of your reading progress, make notes, manage your wishlist, and rate your books. MyBooks.Life uses Open Library data to power its search.
   
  
• Bookmind
  Bookmind is now available at https://apps.apple.com/app/bookmind/id6593662584. It uses open library’s api exclusively for book data. You can even see the rough prototype source at https://github.com/dave-ruest/Bookmind.
   

Are you using the Open Library APIs? We'd love to hear about it! Please email us at [email protected].