📚 Open Library Book Intelligence — 20M+ Books, Covers & Metadata as Structured Data

Search Open Library's catalog of 20+ million books and get clean, structured records with cover images in three sizes on every result. One query returns titles, authors, publishers, ISBNs, subjects, edition counts, reader ratings and full-text availability — all from Open Library's free, official API (a project of the Internet Archive), with no API key. Search by general query, title, author, subject or ISBN to enrich catalogs, build reading lists, or power recommendation engines. It's a free alternative to paid book APIs. Export to JSON/CSV/Excel, run on a schedule, call via API, or connect to Make, Zapier or n8n.

📚 What is the Open Library Book Intelligence?

It turns an Open Library search into a structured dataset. Choose a search type (query, title, author, subject or ISBN), enter a term, and optionally filter by language, publish-year range or full-text availability. The actor queries Open Library, paginates automatically until it hits your result cap, and returns one clean record per book — with authors, ISBNs, cover URLs, subjects, reader-engagement stats and the Open Library page link. Use it for ISBN catalog enrichment, topic-based reading lists, publishing research or grounding an AI book recommender in real metadata.

What data does it extract?

• Title, subtitle and author(s) plus Open Library author keys
• First publish year and edition count
• ISBNs (isbn_10 plus a list of ISBNs) and publishers
• Cover images in small / medium / large (cover_url_small/medium/large)
• Subjects, subject places, people and time periods
• Languages and median page count
• Full-text & public-scan flags (has_fulltext, public_scan, ebook_count)
• Reader engagement — ratings average/count, want-to-read, currently-reading, already-read
• First sentence and the Open Library URL

⬇️ Input

Search five ways, then narrow with filters:

Field	Description
searchType	query (general), title, author, subject, or isbn
searchQuery	Search term — a title, author name, subject or ISBN
language	Filter by language code, e.g. eng, spa, fra, deu
publishYearStart / publishYearEnd	Publish-year range filter
hasFulltext	Only books with full text available (default false)
maxResults	Cap the run (1–200, default 50)

Example input

{
  "searchType": "author",
  "searchQuery": "George Orwell",
  "publishYearStart": 1940,
  "publishYearEnd": 1955,
  "hasFulltext": true,
  "maxResults": 50
}

⬆️ Output

Every book is one clean row (view as a table, or export JSON / CSV / Excel):

{
  "key": "/works/OL1168083W",
  "title": "Nineteen Eighty-Four",
  "subtitle": "A Novel",
  "author": "George Orwell",
  "authors": ["George Orwell"],
  "author_keys": ["OL118077A"],
  "first_publish_year": 1949,
  "edition_count": 412,
  "ebook_count": 7,
  "has_fulltext": true,
  "public_scan": true,
  "cover_id": 9267242,
  "cover_url_small": "https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/9267242-S.jpg",
  "cover_url_medium": "https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/9267242-M.jpg",
  "cover_url_large": "https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/9267242-L.jpg",
  "isbn_10": "0451524934",
  "isbns": ["0451524934", "9780451524935"],
  "publishers": ["Secker & Warburg", "Signet Classics"],
  "languages": ["eng"],
  "subjects": ["Dystopia", "Political fiction", "Totalitarianism"],
  "first_sentence": "It was a bright cold day in April...",
  "number_of_pages_median": 328,
  "ratings_average": 4.18,
  "ratings_count": 5120,
  "open_library_url": "https://openlibrary.org/works/OL1168083W",
  "extracted_at": "2026-06-26T15:30:00.000000"
}

💡 Use cases

• 📖 Reading & book apps: populate catalogs with rich metadata and cover images in three sizes.
• 🏛️ Library systems: enrich records by ISBN, title or author with subjects and edition data.
• 🤖 Recommendation engines: ground book recommendations in real metadata and reader-engagement stats.
• 🔬 Publishing & academic research: analyze editions, subjects and publication trends by year.

❓ FAQ

How big is the database? Open Library indexes 20+ million books, sourced from Open Library and the Internet Archive.

Do I need an API key? No. Open Library's API is free and public — no key, no login required.

How do I look up a book by ISBN? Set searchType: isbn and pass the ISBN as searchQuery for precise single-book catalog enrichment.

Can I search by author or subject? Yes — set searchType to author or subject. Subject search is ideal for building topic-based reading lists.

Are cover images included? Yes — every result with a cover returns cover_url_small, cover_url_medium and cover_url_large so you can pick the size you need.

Can I find books readable online? Set hasFulltext: true to keep only books with full text available via the Internet Archive. Records also include public_scan and ebook_count.

Can I filter by language or publish year? Yes — use language (e.g. eng) and the publishYearStart / publishYearEnd range to narrow results.

What reader stats are included? Where available: ratings average and count, plus want-to-read, currently-reading and already-read counts — useful for popularity signals.

Can I run it on a schedule or via API? Yes — schedule recurring runs in Apify, call it via the API/SDK, or connect it to Make, Zapier or n8n.

Is this legal? It uses Open Library's publicly available data (a project of the Internet Archive), provided for open use. You remain responsible for compliant downstream use and attribution where appropriate.

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Keywords: Open Library API, book data scraper, book metadata, ISBN lookup, book covers API, book search API, Google Books alternative, library data, publishing research, reading list builder, author bibliography, book subjects, edition data, book recommendation data, Internet Archive books.