# Book & ISBN Catalog - Open Library + Gutenberg Lookup (`praise-most-high/book-isbn-catalog`) Actor

Resolve ISBNs, titles or authors to clean book records — publisher, editions, subjects, covers, and public-domain download links.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/praise-most-high/book-isbn-catalog.md
- **Developed by:** [angel nguyen](https://apify.com/praise-most-high) (community)
- **Categories:** E-commerce, Other
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

Pay per usage

This Actor is paid per platform usage. The Actor is free to use, and you only pay for the Apify platform usage, which gets cheaper the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-usage

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Book & ISBN Catalog — bulk metadata lookup from Open Library + Gutenberg

> **Unofficial.** This Actor is **not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by** the
> Internet Archive / Open Library, Project Gutenberg, or the Gutendex project. Those names are
> used only to describe the public, openly-licensed data sources this Actor reads. It is an
> independent tool built on their public APIs.

Turn a list of ISBNs, titles or authors into structured book records. Feed it a spreadsheet
column of ISBNs and get back title, author, publisher, publication year, page count, subjects,
cover art and canonical Open Library keys — plus, for public-domain works, direct Project
Gutenberg download links and a real popularity number.

### What it is good for

- **Retail / marketplace catalog enrichment** — a used-book or marketplace seller with ISBNs and
  nothing else gets a full listing's worth of metadata per row.
- **Library and archive reconciliation** — match local holdings against Open Library's canonical
  work keys.
- **Public-domain sourcing** — Gutendex records carry `download_count`, an actual demand signal
  for which public-domain titles people read, and direct epub/text URLs.
- **Deduplication** — resolve many editions to one work key.

**Sources.** Open Library (Internet Archive), CC0 metadata; Project Gutenberg via Gutendex,
public domain. Both free, open, and cited on every row via `source`.

**Verified sample records, verbatim:**

```json
{"title":"The hobbit","subtitle":"or There and back again","authors":["J.R.R. Tolkien"],
 "publishers":["HarperCollins"],"publishDate":"2020","numberOfPages":300,
 "openLibraryKey":"/works/OL27482W","query":"9780261103283","resolved":true}

{"title":"Foundation","authors":["Isaac Asimov"],"publishers":["Spectra","Bantam Books"],
 "publishDate":"October 1, 1991","numberOfPages":320,"openLibraryKey":"/works/OL46125W",
 "gutenbergId":23692,"gutenbergDownloadCount":3396,"query":"9780553293357","resolved":true}
```

The second row shows the Gutenberg join: the same work matched in Project Gutenberg, carrying its
public-domain download links and a real `download_count`.

**A note on upstream data quality.** Open Library is a community/MARC-imported catalog, and some
records are filed under malformed ISBNs. The Actor reports what Open Library publishes rather
than second-guessing it, so a syntactically invalid ISBN can still return a record. Treat
`openLibraryKey` as the trustworthy identifier, not the queried ISBN.

### Input

| Field | Type | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| `isbns` | string\[] | `[]` | ISBN-10 or ISBN-13, hyphens optional. Most precise input. |
| `titles` | string\[] | `[]` | Free-text title search against Open Library. |
| `authors` | string\[] | `[]` | Free-text author search. |
| `includeGutenberg` | boolean | `true` | Also query Gutendex for a public-domain match and attach download links + `download_count`. |
| `limit` | integer | `10` | Max results per title/author query (1–100). |
| `language` | string | `""` | Optional ISO-639 filter, e.g. `eng`. Blank = no filter. |
| `maxConcurrency` | integer | `2` | **Low on purpose** — Open Library throttles. See below. |

### Output

```
source, title, subtitle, authors[], isbn10[], isbn13[], publishers[], publishDate,
firstPublishYear, numberOfPages, subjects[], languages[], coverUrl, openLibraryKey,
gutenbergId, gutenbergDownloadCount, gutenbergFormats{}, queriedBy, query, scrapedAt
```

Rows that could not be resolved are emitted with `resolved: false` and the original query rather
than dropped — a silent gap in an enrichment job is worse than an explicit miss.

### Throughput — the operational catch

Measured with a 30-request burst:

- `openlibrary.org/search.json`: **27× 200, 2× 429, 1× ECONNRESET**, median **1,764 ms**.
- `gutendex.com/books`: 30× 301 (redirect — the Actor follows redirects; not a failure).

Open Library throttles and is slow. `maxConcurrency` defaults to **2** and the Actor backs off on
429\. A 1,000-ISBN job is minutes, not seconds, and this listing says so rather than letting you
discover it after paying.

### Responsible use

**Public, openly-licensed data only.** Two open bibliographic APIs over plain HTTPS GET. No key,
no account, no session, no CAPTCHA solving, no headless browser, no proxy rotation. Open Library
metadata is released **CC0**; Project Gutenberg texts are public domain in the US.

**No personal data of any kind.** No borrower records, no user lists, no reading history. Open
Library's `/account`, `/borrow` and lending endpoints are never touched.

**Rate limiting.** Concurrency defaults to 2 — the measured minimum, not a courtesy — and the
Actor backs off on 429 rather than retrying hard.

# Actor input Schema

## `isbns` (type: `array`):

ISBN-10 or ISBN-13. Hyphens and spaces are stripped. The most precise input — resolves to exactly one edition.

## `titles` (type: `array`):

Free-text title search against Open Library.

## `authors` (type: `array`):

Free-text author search against Open Library.

## `includeGutenberg` (type: `boolean`):

Also query Gutendex for a public-domain match and attach download links plus download\_count (a real popularity signal). Gutendex is the fully robots-clean source; leaving this on is recommended.

## `gutenbergOnly` (type: `boolean`):

Skip Open Library entirely and use only Gutendex, whose robots.txt explicitly allows this. Open Library's robots.txt disallows /search and /api — see RESPONSIBLE-USE.md. Turning this on removes that flag at the cost of non-public-domain coverage.

## `limit` (type: `integer`):

Max results per title/author query. Ignored for ISBN lookups, which return one edition each.

## `language` (type: `string`):

Optional ISO-639-2 code, e.g. 'eng'. Leave blank for no filter.

## `maxConcurrency` (type: `integer`):

Kept low on purpose: a 30-request burst to Open Library measured 2x HTTP 429 and a connection reset, at a 1.76s median. Raising this will get you throttled, not served faster.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "isbns": [
    "9780261103283",
    "9780141439518"
  ],
  "titles": [],
  "authors": [],
  "includeGutenberg": true,
  "gutenbergOnly": false,
  "limit": 10,
  "language": "",
  "maxConcurrency": 2
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `records` (type: `string`):

No description

## `csv` (type: `string`):

No description

## `datasetView` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "isbns": [
        "9780261103283",
        "9780141439518"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("praise-most-high/book-isbn-catalog").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "isbns": [
        "9780261103283",
        "9780141439518",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("praise-most-high/book-isbn-catalog").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "isbns": [
    "9780261103283",
    "9780141439518"
  ]
}' |
apify call praise-most-high/book-isbn-catalog --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,praise-most-high/book-isbn-catalog"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/l7SIH8dGcxvCIDYyP/builds/ukBFXRkO2sKsrOQwi/openapi.json