Anybody familiar with openlibrary.org or worldcat.org API?
I'm thinking about creating a bibliophile community, and I need to get access to a large books database (metadata, cover, author, title, isbn). I found a couple of sites that I can use their API but not sure if it's free? And is it legal? My intention is to use those data for book references (not to sell books nor advertise). Let's say when people click on that post, it will show the data about that book, that's it. Ideally, it will be a minimalist place where people who love books can nerd out. SO! any idea and suggestion about openlibrary.org or worldcat.org or any other providers or any crazy ideas related to my idea, feel free to share:))
by the way, are there indie hackers out there who read a lot? And where do you hang out to stay up to date with books?
Hello Anny,
I am also working on a product that involves books. :) Readabo on IH - Readabo
Many of the available book APIs are free, but with different limitations and limits. It's best to read the terms of the ones you are interested in.
For instance, there is Google Books APIs You get a quota of 100K/day(You can contact Google for an increase). One of the terms states that
Some API endpoints don't even require authentication e.g Google Books Search
The http://openlibrary.org is easy to use. I played with the API a while back. Here is a sample query - Search using ISBN or Search using ISBN
There are others like https://isbndb.com/ and Amazon ItemSearch. If you are interested, I can send you a list of the best Books APIs/Platforms I have found so far. This link might also interest you https://gumroad.com/l/RKxO :)
To answer your questions:
All the best.
Cheers!
wow. Thank you for the insight! @tunjos!
I mostly got books recs from instagram community and for the business reading from newspaper articles or Goodreads.