📚 Open Library Book Search

Search and extract structured book data from Open Library — the world's largest open book catalog powered by the Internet Archive.

✨ Features

• Keyword Search — Search across millions of books by title, topic, or any keyword
• Author Search — Find all books by a specific author
• Subject Browse — Browse books by category (science, fiction, history, etc.)
• ISBN Lookup — Look up specific books by ISBN (ISBN-10 or ISBN-13)
• Rich Data — Titles, authors, publishers, page counts, ISBNs, ratings, reading stats, cover images
• No API Key Required — Uses the free Open Library API with no authentication

🔧 How It Works

1. Select a search mode (keyword, author, subject, or ISBN)
2. Enter your search query
3. The Actor queries the Open Library API and paginates through results
4. Returns structured book data as a clean dataset

📖 How to Use

1. Click Try for free on the Actor page
2. Choose a Search Mode:
   • Keyword Search — Enter any search terms (e.g., "machine learning")
   • Author Search — Enter an author name (e.g., "Stephen King")
   • Browse by Subject — Enter a subject (e.g., "science_fiction", "history")
   • ISBN Lookup — Enter one or more ISBNs separated by commas
3. Set Maximum Results (default: 50, max: 500)
4. Choose Sort Order (relevance, newest, oldest, highest rated, most popular)
5. Click Start and wait for results

📊 Sample Output

[
    {
        "title": "Why Machines Learn",
        "authors": "Anil Ananthaswamy",
        "first_publish_year": 2024,
        "pages": 480,
        "publisher": "Penguin Publishing Group",
        "subjects": "Science",
        "languages": "eng",
        "isbn": "9780593185766",
        "edition_count": 4,
        "ebook_available": false,
        "cover_url": "https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/15139089-M.jpg",
        "rating": 5.0,
        "ratings_count": 1,
        "want_to_read": 106,
        "currently_reading": 3,
        "already_read": 1,
        "open_library_url": "https://openlibrary.org/works/OL37831042W",
        "open_library_key": "/works/OL37831042W",
        "fetched_at": "2025-01-15T12:00:00.000000"
    }
]

📝 Output Fields

Field	Description
title	Book title
authors	Author name(s), comma-separated
first_publish_year	Year of first publication
pages	Median page count across editions
publisher	Primary publisher
subjects	Top subjects/categories (up to 5)
languages	Available languages
isbn	Primary ISBN
edition_count	Number of editions
ebook_available	Whether an ebook is available on Open Library
cover_url	Book cover image URL
rating	Average rating (1-5 scale)
ratings_count	Number of ratings
want_to_read	Number of users who want to read this book
currently_reading	Number of users currently reading
already_read	Number of users who have read this book
open_library_url	Link to the book on Open Library
open_library_key	Open Library work/edition key
fetched_at	Timestamp when data was fetched

💡 Tips

• Subject mode: Use underscores for multi-word subjects (e.g., science_fiction, computer_science)
• ISBN mode: Enter multiple ISBNs separated by commas (e.g., 9780593185766,0140449264)
• Large datasets: Set max_results up to 500 for comprehensive results
• Sorting: Use want_to_read sort to find the most popular books in a topic

⚠️ Notes

• The Open Library API is free and does not require an API key
• Rate limiting is handled automatically with polite delays between requests
• Cover images are served from covers.openlibrary.org
• Some fields (ratings, reading stats) may be null for less popular books
• The Actor uses ~128 MB of memory for typical runs