Open Library Books Scraper — ISBN, Authors & Editions

Search Open Library by title, author, subject or ISBN and get one row per work: authors, first publish year, edition count, a real ISBN-13, subjects, ratings, a cover image, and whether the book can be read online right now.

No API key, no account. $0.008 per book — a search that matches nothing is recorded and not charged.

Input

{ "query": "dune", "searchBy": "title", "maxBooks": 50 }

Bulk, by author:

{ "queries": ["Ursula K. Le Guin", "Octavia Butler"], "searchBy": "author", "maxBooks": 100 }

Field	Type	Notes
query	string	A title, author, subject or ISBN.
queries	string[]	Up to 10 searches per run.
searchBy	enum	general, title, author, subject, isbn.
maxBooks	integer	1–200 per search. You are charged per book returned.

Output

{
  "ok": true,
  "workId": "OL893415W",
  "url": "https://openlibrary.org/works/OL893415W",
  "title": "Dune",
  "authors": ["Frank Herbert"],
  "firstPublishYear": 1965,
  "editionCount": 218,
  "isbn13": "9780441013593",
  "isbnCount": 94,
  "languages": ["eng", "ger"],
  "medianPages": 528,
  "subjects": ["Science fiction", "Desert ecology"],
  "ratingsAverage": 4.24,
  "ratingsCount": 512,
  "coverUrl": "https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/12345-L.jpg",
  "ebookAccess": "borrowable",
  "readableOnline": true,
  "totalMatches": 1834
}

What it gets right

• ⭐ isbn13 is really an ISBN-13. A popular work carries dozens of ISBNs across printings and formats, and taking the first one hands you a 1970s ISBN-10 at random. This picks a genuine 13-character identifier — the one every modern catalogue and retailer keys on — and reports isbnCount so you know how many editions sit behind it.
• workId is bare, not the /works/OL…W path, so it joins cleanly to other Open Library data.
• readableOnline answers the actual question. "Can I read this now?" is what a books dataset is usually for; it is derived from ebook_access and asserted to agree with it.
• Only the fields you need are requested. Open Library returns enormous documents by default; a scoped field list keeps runs fast and cheap.
• Search is field-scoped, so an author search does not drag in every book that mentions them.

Pricing

$0.008 per book returned. A search matching nothing produces a bookCount: 0 record with totalMatches and is not charged.

Limits

• 10 searches per run, up to 200 books each.
• Returns work-level records — the book, not a specific printing. editionCount and isbnCount tell you how much variation sits underneath.
• Ratings are Open Library's own and are sparse; many works have none.
• Open Library is community-maintained, so coverage and subject tagging vary by title.

FAQ

Do I need an API key? No — Open Library is open data from the Internet Archive.

Why is ratingsAverage often null? Few works have been rated there.

Can I get a specific edition? Search searchBy: "isbn" for the printing you mean.

Changelog

• 0.1 (2026-09-10) — first release. Field-scoped search, real ISBN-13 selection, bare work ids, read-online status, offset paging.