Internet Archive Search Scraper

Search and retrieve items from the Internet Archive (archive.org) — the world's largest digital library with 44M+ books, videos, audio recordings, software, and web archives. Free, no API key required.

What does this actor do?

This actor lets you:

• Search the entire Internet Archive by keyword with filters for media type, collection, language, date range, and sort order.
• Fetch specific items by their unique Archive.org identifiers, getting enriched metadata including file counts and item sizes.

Data Source

All data is retrieved from the Internet Archive public API:

• Advanced Search API: https://archive.org/advancedsearch.php — free, no authentication required.
• Metadata API: https://archive.org/metadata/{identifier} — free, no authentication required.

Input

Field	Type	Description
mode	Select	search (default) or byIdentifiers
query	String	Search keywords (e.g. "public domain books", "jazz music")
mediaType	Select	Filter by type: texts, audio, movies, software, image, etree, data, web, collection, account
collection	String	Filter by collection slug (e.g. "gutenbergbooks", "librivoxaudio", "prelinger")
language	String	Filter by language code (e.g. "eng", "fra", "spa")
dateFrom	String	Start date filter (YYYY or YYYY-MM-DD)
dateTo	String	End date filter (YYYY or YYYY-MM-DD)
sortBy	Select	Sort order: most downloaded, newest, oldest, or alphabetical
identifiers	Array	Specific Archive.org identifiers (for byIdentifiers mode)
maxItems	Integer	Max items to return (default: 50, max: 5000)

Example Inputs

Search for classic literature texts:

{
  "mode": "search",
  "query": "shakespeare",
  "mediaType": "texts",
  "language": "eng",
  "maxItems": 25
}

Fetch specific items by identifier:

{
  "mode": "byIdentifiers",
  "identifiers": ["gutenberg-hamlet", "adventures_of_huckleberry_finn_librivox"],
  "maxItems": 10
}

Search for audio recordings in a date range:

{
  "mode": "search",
  "query": "blues music",
  "mediaType": "audio",
  "dateFrom": "1920",
  "dateTo": "1960",
  "sortBy": "-publicdate",
  "maxItems": 100
}

Output

Each item in the dataset contains:

Field	Description
identifier	Unique Archive.org identifier
url	Direct URL to the item page (archive.org/details/{identifier})
title	Item title
description	Item description
creator	Author or creator
date	Creation or publication date
mediatype	Type of media (texts, audio, movies, etc.)
collection	Collection it belongs to
language	Language code(s)
subject	Subject tags (up to 10)
format	File format(s) (up to 5)
downloads	Total download count
files_count	Number of files in the item (byIdentifiers mode)
item_size	Total size in bytes (byIdentifiers mode)
server	Serving server hostname (byIdentifiers mode)
scrapedAt	ISO 8601 timestamp of when data was scraped

Example Output

{
  "identifier": "gutenberg-hamlet",
  "url": "https://archive.org/details/gutenberg-hamlet",
  "title": "Hamlet",
  "description": "A classic tragedy by William Shakespeare",
  "creator": "William Shakespeare",
  "date": "1603",
  "mediatype": "texts",
  "collection": "gutenbergbooks",
  "language": "eng",
  "subject": ["drama", "tragedy", "Shakespeare"],
  "format": ["PDF", "EPUB", "Plain Text"],
  "downloads": 85432,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-01-15T10:30:00+00:00"
}

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this free to use? Yes. The Internet Archive provides a completely free public API with no authentication required.

How many items can I retrieve? Up to 5,000 items per run using the maxItems parameter.

What media types are available? Texts (books), Audio, Movies/Video, Software, Images, Live Music (etree), Data sets, Web Archives, and Collections.

Can I filter by collection? Yes — use the collection field with a collection slug (e.g. "gutenbergbooks" for Project Gutenberg books, "librivoxaudio" for LibriVox audiobooks, "prelinger" for Prelinger Archives films).

Can I search in specific languages? Yes — use ISO 639-3 language codes like "eng" (English), "fra" (French), "spa" (Spanish), "deu" (German).

What are identifiers? Every Internet Archive item has a unique identifier (e.g. "gutenberg-hamlet"). You can find these in Archive.org URLs: archive.org/details/{identifier}.

How is the data rate-limited? The actor adds a 0.3s delay between search pages and 0.5s between metadata requests to respect the API's guidelines.

Use Cases

• Building digital library catalogs
• Research on public domain content
• Finding historical audio/video recordings
• Locating old software for preservation research
• Downloading metadata for academic research
• Tracking download statistics for archive items