Open Library Books Scraper

Extract comprehensive book metadata from Open Library - the world's largest open catalog of book information. Get titles, authors, ISBNs, publication data, ratings, reading statistics, and more from over 20 million books.

What This Actor Does

Open Library Books Scraper connects to the Internet Archive's Open Library API to extract detailed bibliographic information. Whether you are building a book database, conducting literary research, or creating reading recommendation systems, this Actor provides structured access to millions of book records.

The scraper handles pagination automatically, respects API rate limits, and provides rich metadata including cover images, reading statistics, and availability information for digital and physical editions.

Use Cases

Library and Catalog Management

Build or update library catalogs with accurate bibliographic data. Extract ISBNs, LCCNs, and OCLC numbers for cross-referencing with other library systems. Import complete publication histories including multiple editions and publishers.

Academic Research

Gather datasets for literary studies, publication trend analysis, or citation research. Filter by publication year, language, or subject to create focused datasets. Access reading statistics and community ratings for sentiment analysis.

Book Recommendation Engines

Collect book metadata to power recommendation algorithms. Extract subject tags, genre classifications, and thematic keywords. Link books through shared authors, subjects, or time periods for similarity matching.

E-commerce and Price Comparison

Gather ISBN data and cover images for book listing services. Identify books with available ebook access or public domain scans. Build databases of publisher information for inventory management.

Reading Apps and Trackers

Import book data for reading list applications. Access community reading statistics including "want to read" counts and average ratings. Identify trending books and popular editions.

Features

• Comprehensive Metadata: Extract 25+ data fields per book including identifiers, publication details, and descriptive tags
• Rich Author Information: Multiple authors per book with Open Library author IDs for cross-referencing
• Cover Images: Direct URLs to Open Library cover images in multiple sizes
• Availability Tracking: Ebook access status, full-text availability, and Internet Archive links
• Community Data: Average ratings, rating counts, and reading list statistics
• Multi-language Support: Filter and extract books by language code
• Publication History: Complete publication years, places, and publisher information
• Subject Classification: Extract subjects, genres, places, time periods, and notable people
• Edition Tracking: Count of known editions and median page counts
• Library Identifiers: ISBN-10, ISBN-13, LCCN, and OCLC numbers
• Automatic Pagination: Handles large result sets with configurable limits
• Rate Limit Compliance: Built-in delays to respect API limits
• Spending Control: PPE charging with limit checks

Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
searchQuery	string	Yes	-	Search term for titles, authors, or keywords
author	string	No	""	Filter by author name
subject	string	No	""	Filter by subject, genre, or topic
language	string	No	""	Filter by language code (eng, spa, fre, etc.)
hasEbook	boolean	No	false	Only include books with available ebook
publishYearFrom	integer	No	-	Minimum publication year
publishYearTo	integer	No	-	Maximum publication year
maxBooks	integer	Yes	100	Maximum books to extract (1-1000)
proxyConfiguration	object	No	-	Proxy settings for requests

Search Examples

Basic title search: "the hobbit"

Author search: "j.k. rowling" (with author filter)

Subject search: "science fiction" (with subject filter)

Language filter: "eng" for English books only

Publication range: 1900 to 1950 for books from that era

Output Format

Each book record includes:

{
  "bookId": "OL27448W",
  "title": "The Lord of the Rings",
  "authors": ["J.R.R. Tolkien"],
  "authorIds": ["26320A"],
  "firstPublishYear": 1954,
  "publishYears": [1954, 1955, 1965, 1974],
  "publishPlaces": ["London", "Boston"],
  "publishers": ["George Allen & Unwin", "Houghton Mifflin"],
  "isbns": ["9780618343997", "0618343997"],
  "lccns": ["2001276574"],
  "oclcs": ["474327889"],
  "coverId": 14625765,
  "coverUrl": "https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/14625765-L.jpg",
  "ebookAccess": "borrowable",
  "hasFulltext": true,
  "publicScan": false,
  "internetArchiveIds": ["lordofrings00tolk_5"],
  "languages": ["eng", "spa", "fre"],
  "subjects": ["Fiction", "Fantasy", "Epic"],
  "places": ["Middle Earth"],
  "timePeriods": ["The Third Age"],
  "people": ["Frodo Baggins", "Gandalf"],
  "editionCount": 251,
  "pageCountMedian": 1178,
  "averageRating": 4.25,
  "ratingsCount": 12453,
  "readingLogCount": 45231,
  "wantToReadCount": 8912,
  "currentlyReadingCount": 1234,
  "alreadyReadCount": 35085,
  "openLibraryUrl": "https://openlibrary.org/works/OL27448W",
  "extractedAt": "2026-03-23T10:30:00.000Z"
}

Pricing

This Actor uses Pay Per Event (PPE) pricing:

Event	Price	Description
book-extracted	$0.002	Charged for each book extracted

Cost Examples

Books Extracted	Total Cost
100	$0.20
500	$1.00
1,000	$2.00

Pricing is based on API usage and data processing. No additional proxy costs required as Open Library provides free public API access.

FAQ

Q: Is there a rate limit on the Open Library API?

This Actor automatically implements rate limiting (200ms between requests) to comply with Open Library's fair use policy. Large extractions may take several minutes to complete.

Q: Can I extract full book text?

No, this Actor extracts metadata only. For full-text access, check the hasFulltext and ebookAccess fields which link to Internet Archive's borrowing system for eligible books.

Q: What languages are supported?

Open Library contains books in hundreds of languages. Use standard ISO 639-1/639-2 codes (eng, spa, fra, deu, etc.) to filter by language.

Q: How current is the data?

Data comes directly from Open Library's live API. Reading statistics and ratings are updated in real-time as users interact with the platform.

Q: Can I search by ISBN?

Yes, include the ISBN in your searchQuery. For direct ISBN lookup, Open Library also offers a dedicated ISBN endpoint which this Actor can query.

Limitations

• Maximum 1000 books per run (API pagination limit)
• Metadata availability varies by book - some fields may be null
• Cover images are hosted by Open Library and subject to their availability
• Ebook access depends on Internet Archive's lending policies
• Very recent publications may not yet be indexed
• Rate limiting applied to ensure API compliance

Data Source

This Actor uses the Open Library API, a project of the Internet Archive. All data is provided under Open Library's terms of use. Please respect their service by not exceeding reasonable usage limits.

Support

For issues, feature requests, or questions about this Actor, please open an issue on this Actor's Apify page. Include your run ID and input configuration for faster resolution.

Changelog

v1.0.1 (2026-10-03)

• Fixed TypeScript build error (body type narrowing in request handler) — first successful v1.0 build; the latest build tag is now served by the current code.

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Built for researchers, librarians, and book lovers who need structured access to the world's bibliographic data.