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Last edited by raybb
September 3, 2024 | History

Developer Center / APIs / Authors API

Searching for Authors

You can search for authors using the https://openlibrary.org/search/authors.json search API which accepts q as a query parameter:

https://openlibrary.org/search/authors.json?q=j%20k%20rowling

{
  numFound: 1,
  start: 0,
  numFoundExact: true,
  docs: [
    {
      key: "OL23919A",
      text: [...],
      type: "author",
      name: "J. K. Rowling",
      alternate_names: [...],
      birth_date: "31 July 1965",
      top_work: "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone",
      work_count: 162,
      top_subjects: [...],
      _version_: 1702166143068799000
    },
  ]
}

Data on Individual Authors

Once you have the identifier key of an author of interest, e.g. /authors/OL23919A, you can fetch their complete data by visiting their Author page as .json, .rdf, .yml:

e.g. https://openlibrary.org/authors/OL23919A.json

Batch Requests

Currently, we do not have a way to get the full data for multiple authors in one request. However, you can get a subset (name, subjects, ratings, and more) by using the search API with a query like key:(/authors/OL3874685A OR /authors/OL1394244A). Example search and example API call.

Works by an Author

https://openlibrary.org/authors/OL23919A/works.json

The above URL will return 50 works by an author.

You can append ?limit=1000 to return the first 1000 works by an author like so:
https://openlibrary.org/authors/OL1394244A/works.json?limit=100

If you want to paginate, you can set offset like so:
https://openlibrary.org/authors/OL1394244A/works.json?offset=50

Gotchas

Note that by default, navigating to https://openlibrary.org/authors/OL23919A will redirect to https://openlibrary.org/authors/OL23919A/J._K._Rowling (appending the human readable slug "J._K._Rowling"). Adding .json to the end of the slug (e.g. https://openlibrary.org/authors/OL23919A/J._K._Rowling.json) will not work. You must first remove the human readable slug and append .json directly to the end of the author's key, e.g. https://openlibrary.org/authors/OL23919A.json.

History

September 3, 2024 Edited by raybb add data on batch requests
August 1, 2021 Edited by raybb add pagination and limits
July 1, 2021 Edited by Mek Edited without comment.
June 27, 2021 Edited by Mek Edited without comment.
June 27, 2021 Created by Mek Edited without comment.