Open Library Books Scraper

Here is one real result, with every field the actor returns. The allIsbns array is trimmed to 8 of its 25 real entries for readability; every value shown is real:

{
  "key": "/works/OL27448W",
  "title": "The Lord of the Rings",
  "authorNames": ["J.R.R. Tolkien"],
  "firstPublishYear": 1954,
  "editionCount": 251,
  "isbn": "0007136625",
  "coverUrl": "https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/14625765-L.jpg",
  "subjects": ["The Lord of the Rings", "Fiction", "Ficción", "English Fantasy fiction", "Ficción fantástica inglesa", "Fantasy fiction", "Open Library Staff Picks", "Middle Earth (Imaginary place)"],
  "url": "https://openlibrary.org/works/OL27448W",
  "allIsbns": ["0007136625", "0618640150", "2266032488", "9780395595114", "2267013169", "0618260552", "9783608952117", "9780007887682"],
  "authorKeys": ["OL26320A"],
  "publishers": ["Sushi Books", "HarperCollins Publishers Ltd", "Pocket", "Mariner Books", "George Allen & Unwin", "Minotauro", "HMH Books for Young Readers", "Hyoronsha"],
  "firstPublishedYear": 1954,
  "lastPublishedYear": 2023,
  "languages": ["por", "swe", "slo", "fre", "spa", "ger", "eng", "glg", "cze", "bul", "dut", "pol"],
  "pageCountMedian": 1193,
  "ratingsAverage": 4.4347825,
  "ratingsCount": 115,
  "wantToReadCount": 2288,
  "currentlyReadingCount": 196,
  "alreadyReadCount": 226,
  "hasFulltext": true,
  "ebookAccess": "borrowable",
  "readOnlineUrl": "https://archive.org/details/lordofrings00tolk_5",
  "firstSentence": "When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton.",
  "deweyDecimal": "823.914",
  "libraryOfCongress": "PR-6039.00000000.O32 L6 1967",
  "amazonId": "841688417X",
  "goodreadsId": "6657492",
  "oclc": "1011061831",
  "lccn": "2004275215",
  "people": ["Frodo Baggins", "Samwise Gamgee", "Meriadoc Brandybuck", "Peregrin Took", "Gandalf the Grey", "Aragorn", "Legolas Greenleaf", "Gimli"],
  "places": ["Mordor", "Hornburg", "Isengard", "Cracks of Doom", "Fangorn Forest", "Middle Earth", "Tierra Media"],
  "source": "Open Library",
  "observedAt": "2026-08-10T14:28:28.243Z"
}

The most complete Open Library book scraper available. It returns every field the Open Library search index exposes for each work, including authors, ISBNs, publishers, languages, cover image, subjects, reading stats and cross-catalog identifiers (Dewey, Library of Congress, OCLC, LCCN, Amazon, Goodreads), plus derived first / last published years and a ready-to-open read-online link, all from a single keyword search.

📥 Input · 📤 Output · 💰 Pricing · ▶️ Examples

Table of contents

• What it does
• Quickstart
• Input reference
• Output reference
• Example output record
• Run via API and CLI
• Fetch results
• Billing and limits
• FAQ and troubleshooting

What it does

The actor queries the public Open Library search index for your keyword, paginates through the matching works, and writes one normalized record per book to the run's dataset. Each record captures the work identity (title, authors, key), the full ISBN list, publishers and languages across all editions, cover image, subjects, community reading stats, and every cross-catalog identifier Open Library holds. First and last published years are derived from the edition years so you can sort a catalog without extra parsing. No account or API key is required.

Quickstart

Open the actor, paste this into the input, and press Run. It returns up to 10 books matching the query.

{
  "maxBooks": 10,
  "searchQuery": "the lord of the rings"
}

The keyword searches title, author and subject at once, so stephen king, machine learning and the hobbit all work. Every input field is optional.

Input reference

Field	Type	Required	Default	Description
maxBooks	integer	no	10	Maximum books to collect. Paginated behind the scenes in pages of up to 100.
searchQuery	string	no	(empty)	Keyword to search books by title, author or subject, for example the lord of the rings, stephen king, machine learning.

Output reference

One dataset item per book (Open Library work). Types: string, integer, number, boolean, string[], or null when the source value is absent.

Field	Type	Description
key	string	Open Library work key (unique identifier), for example /works/OL27448W.
title	string	Book title.
authorNames	string[]	Author name(s).
firstPublishYear	integer	First publication year reported by Open Library.
editionCount	integer	Number of known editions.
isbn	string	A representative ISBN for the work.
coverUrl	string	Large cover image URL, or null.
subjects	string[]	Subject tags (up to 8).
url	string	Open Library work page URL.
allIsbns	string[]	ISBNs across editions (up to 25).
authorKeys	string[]	Open Library author keys (up to 10).
publishers	string[]	Publisher names across editions (up to 8).
firstPublishedYear	integer	Earliest edition year (derived).
lastPublishedYear	integer	Latest edition year (derived).
languages	string[]	Language codes across editions (up to 12).
pageCountMedian	integer	Median page count across editions.
ratingsAverage	number	Average community rating.
ratingsCount	integer	Number of ratings.
wantToReadCount	integer	Users who marked "want to read".
currentlyReadingCount	integer	Users currently reading.
alreadyReadCount	integer	Users who marked "already read".
hasFulltext	boolean	true if full text is available somewhere.
ebookAccess	string	Ebook access level, for example borrowable, public, no_ebook.
readOnlineUrl	string	Internet Archive read-online URL, or null.
firstSentence	string	First sentence of the book, or null.
deweyDecimal	string	Dewey Decimal classification, or null.
libraryOfCongress	string	Library of Congress classification, or null.
amazonId	string	Amazon ID (ASIN), or null.
goodreadsId	string	Goodreads ID, or null.
oclc	string	OCLC / WorldCat number, or null.
lccn	string	Library of Congress Control Number, or null.
people	string[]	People named in the work (characters or subjects).
places	string[]	Places named in the work.
source	string	Always Open Library.
observedAt	string	ISO 8601 timestamp of when the record was collected.

Example output record

See the hero record at the top of this page. It is a real record for "The Lord of the Rings" (work /works/OL27448W) pulled from a live run (input {"searchQuery":"the lord of the rings","maxBooks":10}), with the allIsbns list trimmed for readability; every value shown is real.

Run via API and CLI

Start a run and wait for it to finish, then read the dataset. Replace <TOKEN> with your Apify API token.

Run synchronously and get dataset items in one call:

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/scrapers_lat~openlibrary-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<TOKEN>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"searchQuery":"stephen king","maxBooks":25}'

Start a run asynchronously:

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/scrapers_lat~openlibrary-scraper/runs?token=<TOKEN>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"searchQuery":"machine learning","maxBooks":100}'

Apify CLI:

apify call scrapers_lat/openlibrary-scraper \
  --input '{"searchQuery":"the hobbit","maxBooks":10}'

Fetch results

Every run writes to a dataset. Fetch items as JSON, CSV, or Excel by changing format:

# JSON
curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/datasets/<DATASET_ID>/items?token=<TOKEN>&clean=true&format=json"

# CSV
curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/datasets/<DATASET_ID>/items?token=<TOKEN>&clean=true&format=csv"

# Paginate large datasets
curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/datasets/<DATASET_ID>/items?token=<TOKEN>&offset=1000&limit=1000"

<DATASET_ID> is returned as defaultDatasetId in the run object. Use offset and limit to page through large result sets. clean=true drops empty and internal fields.

Billing and limits

• Pay per result. You are charged per book returned (result event). See the pricing tab for the current per-result price.
• No charge on failure. If a run errors, the actor writes a single item with a populated error field and does not charge for it. Empty runs cost nothing.
• Spend cap respected. Set maxTotalChargeUsd on the run; once reached, the actor stops emitting and charging further billable results.
• Free Apify plans are capped at 10 books per run. Upgrade for higher maxBooks.

FAQ and troubleshooting

A run returned 0 records. Why? The keyword matched no works in the Open Library index. Try a broader or corrected keyword. Zero-result runs are not charged.

Why are some identifier fields null? Not every work has a Dewey number, LCCN, OCLC, Amazon or Goodreads ID recorded in Open Library. Missing values are returned as null, never invented.

Can I read the book online? When readOnlineUrl is present, it links to the Internet Archive copy. ebookAccess tells you the access level (borrowable, public, or no_ebook).

How do I search by author only? The keyword already matches author names. Type the author, for example stephen king, and the most relevant works come back first.

Is this an official Open Library tool? No. This actor is independent and has no affiliation with Open Library or the Internet Archive. It reads only data that is publicly available through the Open Library search API.

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More scrapers at scrapers.lat

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Independent tool, not affiliated with Open Library or the Internet Archive. Accesses only publicly available Open Library data.