open-library-api

NOTE: this is not an official Open Library package. openlibrary.org does not currently provide an official package.

open-library-api is a node module that includes Open API Spec definitions for the openlibrary.org API. It is based on the reference python library provided by the Internet Archive. The json schema was updated by hand and then generated into typescrupt defs using openapi-typescript. To import the types in node, just:

1. Install the library: npm install open-library-api
2. Import the types: import { paths, components, operations } from 'open-library-api'

Getting Started - browsing the documentation

This repository comes with an Open API Spec viewer powered by RapiDoc. To browse the Open API documentation, clone this library:

  git clone [email protected]:Candid-Engineering/open-library-api.git

Then run npm start and open http://localhost:3000 in your favorite browser.

Getting Started - node typescript client

While you may use the included OAS specs to generate an Open Library client in any language (e.g. by using openapi-generator), the recommended approach for Node + TypeScript is to use openapi-fetch:

openapi-fetch is a type-safe fetch client that pulls in your OpenAPI schema. Weighs 5 kb and has virtually zero runtime. Works with React, Vue, Svelte, or vanilla JS.

Using it is as simple as:

1. npm install open-library-api
2. npm install openapi-fetch
3. Create and use an openapi-fetch client using the open-library-api definitions:

import createClient from 'openapi-fetch'
import type { paths } from 'open-library-api'


const client = createClient<paths>({ baseUrl: 'https://openlibrary.org/' })

const { data, error, response } = await client.GET('/isbn/{isbn}.json', {
  params: { path: { isbn: '1234567890' } }
})

That's it, have nerdy 📖🐛 fun!

Future Work

The current implementation only documents the basic GET APIs for /author/{id}, /book/{id} (aka /edition/{id}), and /work/{/id}. It also covers Edition lookup by ISBN: /isbn/{isbn}.

Features that are not currently included in this spec:

• [ ] Search API
• [ ] Authentication + Write APIs (see reference python client)

Contributions Welcome!

Feel free to open Pull Requests with additional open-library features.