Google Books and Open Library

Two external book-metadata APIs we use for ISBN lookup.

When each is used

• Bulk ISBN Import: Google Books first, then Open Library if not found
• Single book add (with ISBN): Google Books first, then Open Library

Google Books

• Maintained by Google
• Excellent coverage of English-language books published since ~2000
• Provides title, author, publisher, year, description, cover, page count
• Free to use (no API key needed for low volume)

Open Library

• Maintained by Internet Archive
• Better coverage for older books, public domain, niche presses
• Provides similar metadata
• Free to use

What if neither returns a result

Some books aren't in either API:

• Recent self-publications
• Foreign-language books (limited coverage)
• Out-of-print specialty books
• Books published before ~1980 (mixed coverage)

In these cases, you add the book manually (see "Add a single book").

Coverage issues

• Sometimes a book is in Google Books with stale or wrong metadata
• We use the first match — if it's wrong, you can fix it after import
• Or paste the ISBN of a different edition that has better metadata

Privacy

We don't share patron data with these APIs. ISBN lookup is anonymous from your library's perspective.