📚 Open Library Editions Scraper

🚀 Pull physical book editions (ISBNs, publishers, page counts, formats, languages) from Open Library.

🕒 Last updated: 2026-05-06 · 📊 32 fields per record · Bulk ISBN lookup or per-work edition pulls · publishers, ISBNs, page counts, formats, languages, places, dimensions, classifications

The Open Library Editions Scraper pulls physical book-edition records from the Internet Archive's Open Library catalog. While most catalog tools focus on abstract works, this Actor returns the concrete editions: each printing's ISBN-10, ISBN-13, publisher, place of publication, page count, physical format, dimensions, language, and library classifications.

Two input modes in one Actor: (1) provide a list of ISBNs and the Actor resolves each directly to a structured edition record; or (2) provide an Open Library work key and the Actor pulls every edition of that work, optionally filtered by language or publisher.

🎯 Target Audience	💡 Primary Use Cases
Library systems, publishers, booksellers, ISBN-to-book pipelines, OPAC integrations, second-hand marketplaces	Catalog enrichment, ISBN bulk lookup, publisher analysis, edition reconciliation, Library of Congress and Dewey classification join-keys

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📋 What the Open Library Editions Scraper does

Five filtering workflows in a single run:

• 🆔 ISBN bulk lookup. Provide hundreds of ISBNs (ISBN-10 or ISBN-13). Each resolves to a full edition record.
• 📚 Per-work editions. Pass an OL work key (e.g. OL45804W) and pull every published edition of that work.
• 🌐 Language filter. ISO 639-2 code restricts edition results from a work.
• 🏢 Publisher filter. Substring-match on publisher to narrow a work's editions.
• 📋 Library classifications. Dewey Decimal, LC Classification, OCLC, and source records included.

💡 Why it matters: clean, server-side filtering removes the parser-and-pagination work from your team and keeps your dataset fresh on every run.

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🎬 Full Demo

🚧 Coming soon: a 3-minute walkthrough showing how to go from sign-up to a downloaded dataset.

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⚙️ Input

Input	Type	Default	Behavior
maxItems	integer	10	Records to return. Free plan caps at 10, paid plan up to 1,000,000.
isbns	string	newline/semicolon list	ISBN-10 or ISBN-13 codes, one per line. Resolved directly.
workKey	string	""	Open Library work key (e.g. `OL45804W`) for full edition list.
language	string	""	ISO 639-2 (eng, spa, fre).
publisher	string	""	Publisher name substring filter.

Example: lookup 3 ISBNs.

{
    "maxItems": 100,
    "isbns": "9780544003415\n9780142418222\n9780261103573"
}

Example: every English Penguin edition of a work.

{
    "maxItems": 100,
    "workKey": "OL45804W",
    "language": "eng",
    "publisher": "Penguin"
}

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📊 Output

Each record contains 32 fields. Download the dataset as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML.

🧾 Schema

Field	Type	Example
🖼️ coverUrl	string	null
🆔 editionKey	string	"OL44247403M"
🆔 workKey	string	null
📛 title	string	"Fantastic Mr. Fox"
📛 subtitle	string	null
🆔 isbn13	string	null
🆔 isbn10	string	null
🏢 publishers	array	["Penguin Publishing Group","Puffin"]
📍 publishPlaces	array	null
📅 publishDate	string	null
📖 numberOfPages	number	null
📐 physicalFormat	string	null
📐 physicalDimensions	string	null
🌐 languages	array	["eng"]
🆔 deweyDecimal	array	null
🆔 lcClassifications	array	null
🆔 oclcNumbers	array	null
🔗 openLibraryUrl	string	"https://openlibrary.org/books/OL44247403M"

📦 Sample records

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✨ Why choose this Actor

	Capability
🆔	ISBN-first. Built for bulk catalog enrichment from ISBN lists, not generic search.
📚	Edition-level metadata. Returns the concrete physical-edition primitive with publisher, ISBN, page count, dimensions.
🌐	Library classifications. Dewey, LC, OCLC, and source records join cleanly to OPAC and library systems.
⚡	Fast. 100 records in under 30 seconds.
⚖️	Public domain catalog. Open Library publishes under CC; commercial reuse permitted.

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📈 How it compares to alternatives

Approach	Cost	Coverage	Refresh	Filters	Setup
⭐ This Actor	$5 free credit	Edition-level	Live per run	ISBN list, work key, lang, publisher	⚡ 2 min
Manual Open Library browse	Free	Manual	Live	Web filters	🕒 Manual
Google Books API	Free	Curated	Live	Limited	🐢 Quota
ISBNdb	$15+/month	Editions	Stale	Limited	🐢 Account

Pick this Actor when you want broad coverage, server-side filtering, and no pipeline maintenance.

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🚀 How to use

1. 📝 Sign up. Create a free account with $5 credit (takes 2 minutes).
2. 🌐 Open the Actor. Go to the Open Library Editions Scraper page on the Apify Store.
3. 🎯 Set input. Pick your filters and maxItems.
4. 🚀 Run it. Click Start and let the Actor collect your data.
5. 📥 Download. Grab your results in the Dataset tab as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML.

⏱️ Total time from signup to downloaded dataset: 3-5 minutes. No coding required.

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💼 Business use cases

📚 Library Tech ISBN-to-edition catalog enrichment Dewey/LC classification joins Bulk-import OPAC entries Reconcile editions across vendors	🛒 Booksellers & Publishers Map customer ISBN lists to full metadata Verify edition stock against vendor catalogs Build publisher-level analytics Power second-hand-marketplace listings
🎓 Education Reading-list ISBN resolution Course-pack catalog enrichment Citation generation per edition ISBN audit for syllabus updates	🤖 ML & Data Pipelines Train book-recommendation models Build ISBN→work clustering Catalog deduplication research Multi-source bibliographic reconciliation

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🔌 Automating Open Library Editions Scraper

Control the scraper programmatically for scheduled runs and pipeline integrations:

• 🟢 Node.js. Install the apify-client NPM package.
• 🐍 Python. Use the apify-client PyPI package.
• 📚 See the Apify API documentation for full details.

The Apify Schedules feature lets you trigger this Actor on any cron interval. Hourly, daily, or weekly refreshes keep downstream databases in sync automatically.

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🌟 Beyond business use cases

Data like this powers more than commercial workflows. The same structured records support research, education, civic projects, and personal initiatives.

🎓 Research and academia Bibliographic research with edition primitives Citation generation Cross-edition translation studies Reproducible catalog snapshots	🎨 Personal and creative Personal book-collection cataloging Indie publisher portfolios Reading-app side projects Hobbyist library management
🤝 Non-profit and civic Library digitization projects Open-data catalog contributions Multilingual reading-list outreach Cultural preservation	🧪 Experimentation Train book-deduplication models Test ISBN resolution accuracy Prototype catalog-search experiments Build edition-recommendation engines

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🤖 Ask an AI assistant about this scraper

Open a ready-to-send prompt about this ParseForge actor in the AI of your choice:

• 💬 ChatGPT
• 🧠 Claude
• 🔍 Perplexity
• 🅒 Copilot

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❓ Frequently Asked Questions

🧩 How does it work?

Provide an ISBN list, a work key, or both. The Actor queries the Open Library edition endpoints and emits one structured record per edition.

🆔 What's the difference between work and edition?

A work is the abstract book (e.g. Lord of the Rings). An edition is a specific printing (1965 Houghton Mifflin hardback, 2003 Mariner trade paperback, 2014 graphic novel adaptation, etc.). Each edition has its own ISBN, page count, and publisher.

📊 How many fields per record?

32, including title, ISBN-10/13, publishers, places, page count, format, dimensions, languages, Dewey/LC classifications, OCLC numbers, and direct URL.

📚 Can I get every edition of a book?

Yes. Pass the work key (OL45804W) and the Actor paginates through all editions, optionally filtered by language or publisher.

🌐 Which languages are covered?

60+, including all major European and Asian languages plus less-common ones with smaller catalogs.

🔁 Can I schedule runs?

Yes. Use Apify Schedules to refresh catalog enrichments daily, weekly, or after each batch of new ISBNs.

⚖️ Is this data free to use?

Yes. Open Library publishes its catalog under a Creative Commons license that permits commercial use with attribution.

💳 Do I need a paid Apify plan?

No. The free plan covers preview runs. A paid plan unlocks higher item counts and scheduling.

🆘 What if a run fails?

Apify retries transient errors. Inspect logs in the Runs tab; partial datasets are preserved.

🔢 What if an ISBN isn't in Open Library?

Open Library covers most published books with ISBNs but isn't exhaustive. Missing ISBNs are skipped with a warning, not failures.

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🔌 Integrate with any app

Open Library Editions Scraper connects to any cloud service via Apify integrations:

• Make - Automate multi-step workflows
• Zapier - Connect with 5,000+ apps
• Slack - Get run notifications in your channels
• Airbyte - Pipe data into your warehouse
• GitHub - Trigger runs from commits and releases
• Google Drive - Export datasets straight to Sheets

You can also use webhooks to trigger downstream actions when a run finishes.

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💡 Pro Tip: browse the complete ParseForge collection for more reference-data scrapers.

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🆘 Need Help? Open our contact form to request a new scraper, propose a custom data project, or report an issue.

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⚠️ Disclaimer: this Actor is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the Internet Archive, Open Library, or any contributing library or publisher. All trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. Only publicly available open data is collected.