Open Library
The Internet Archive's open catalogue of books: works, authors, editions, ISBNs and covers.
- Provider id:
openlibrary - Tools: 1, at $0.001 per call
- Categories: Knowledge & Reference
- Homepage: openlibrary.org
- Provider docs: openlibrary.org/developers/api
- Licence: Open data (the Internet Archive asserts no new rights over the catalogue)
- Attribution: Open Library, Internet Archive (openlibrary.org)
| Tool | Price | What it does |
|---|---|---|
openlibrary/search | $0.001 | Search books: title, authors, first publication year, edition count, sample ISBNs and cover image. |
Inputs are JSON bodies, and unknown fields are rejected with 422 invalid_input (not charged). POST /v1/inspect with a tool's id returns the same input schema, plus the output schema.
Open Library Book Search
openlibrary/search · $0.001 per call (local) · Knowledge & Reference
Search books: title, authors, first publication year, edition count, sample ISBNs and cover image.
Searches the Internet Archive's Open Library catalogue (tens of millions of works) by title, author or subject words, or an ISBN. Each row is a work with all editions folded in: authors, first publish year, number of editions, a few ISBNs, languages, whether an e-book can be read or borrowed, and a cover URL. It does not return book text or reviews; for scholarly papers use openalex/works or crossref/search.
Related: openalex/works, wikipedia/summary.
Input
| Field | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
query | string | yes | Title, author or subject words, or an ISBN. 1–300 characters. |
author | string | no | Only books by this author. At most 200 characters. |
limit | integer | no | From 1 to 10. Default 5. |
Example
{
"query": "the left hand of darkness",
"limit": 3
}node akashi.mjs run openlibrary/search --input '{"query":"the left hand of darkness","limit":3}'