Do I need an API key?

No. Open Library is completely free and open. No authentication required.

Can I read full books?

Many books on Open Library have full-text versions available through the Internet Archive. Use the full-text search filter to find freely readable editions.

How many books are in Open Library?

Open Library catalogs over 20 million unique book records with metadata from libraries, publishers, and community contributions. It is one of the largest open book databases in the world.

MIT Open Library MCP Connector for Claude

A+

Access millions of books, read them online, and explore the world largest open catalog of bibliographic data for every title.

16 tools Official Updated Oct 1, 2026 Official Vinkius Partner

More Details Connect to Claude

Connect to the Open Library API — the Internet Archive's open catalog of over 20 million books.

What you can do

Book Search — Full-text search across 20M+ books with sorting and pagination
ISBN Lookup — Find any book by its ISBN-10 or ISBN-13
Author Profiles — Biographies, bibliographies, and author photos
Subject Browsing — Explore books by topic (Computer Science, Physics, Mathematics)
Full-Text Access — Filter for books with freely readable full text on the Internet Archive
Edition Discovery — Find all editions, translations, and formats of any book
Publisher Search — Browse catalogs from MIT Press, O'Reilly, Cambridge University Press
Language Filter — Search books by publication language
Cover Images — Access book cover art in multiple sizes

Who is this for?

Students — find textbooks, references, and freely readable editions
Researchers — discover comprehensive bibliographies and related works
Librarians — catalog management and edition tracking
Book Lovers — explore the world's largest open book catalog

library-catalogbibliographic-databook-searchopen-dataisbn-lookuparchiving

16 tools expose this connector's capabilities to your AI agent.

get_author

The key format is "OL33421A" (found in Open Library URLs). Get author profile by Open Library key

get_author_works

Returns all works with titles, covers, and subjects. Get all works by a specific author

get_edition

Returns title, publisher, publication date, ISBNs, page count, physical format, languages, and cover images. Get edition details by Open Library edition key

search_authors

Returns author names, birth/death dates, top works, total work counts, and main subjects. Open Library has profiles for hundreds of thousands of authors. Search book authors on Open Library

search_by_isbn

Returns title, publisher, publication date, page count, and cover images. Look up a book by ISBN

search_by_language

Use ISO 639-1 codes: "eng" (English), "fre" (French), "spa" (Spanish), "por" (Portuguese), "ger" (German), "jpn" (Japanese), "chi" (Chinese), "ara" (Arabic). Search books by language

get_work

g. "OL45883W" for The Lord of the Rings). Returns title, description, subjects, covers, and publication history. Get book details by Open Library work key

get_work_editions

Essential for finding specific translations or editions. Get all editions of a specific book

search_books

Returns titles, authors, publication years, edition counts, subjects, ISBNs, covers, and full-text availability. Sort options: "new", "old", "editions", "rating". Search 20M+ books on Open Library

search_by_author

Returns a complete bibliography with editions and publication details. Search books by author name

search_by_publisher

Examples: "MIT Press", "Oxford University Press", "Cambridge University Press", "O'Reilly Media", "Springer". Search books by publisher

search_by_subject

Examples: "science_fiction", "artificial_intelligence", "quantum_physics", "mathematics", "computer_science", "philosophy", "history". Browse books by subject category

search_by_title

More precise than general search when you know the exact book title. Search books by exact title

search_full_text

Essential for finding freely readable books. Search for books with full text available

search_recent

Useful for discovering new additions to the catalog. Browse recently added books

search_trending_subjects

Browse popular books in a subject

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