xISBN API
Table of contents
Overview
Users submit a single, known ISBN value to the xISBN server, and the xISBN server returns a list of relevant ISBNs sorted by the number of times each represented item is held by a WorldCat library ("holdings"), highest to lowest. Users may receive the list in either XML or XHTML format. The responses and error codes are also listed in this page. The xISBN service includes these features:
- ISBN values are automatically normalized; dashes are removed before the query is run, so users may supply ISBN values with or without dashes.
- A 10-digit ISBN request will return a 10-digit ISBN response when applicable; a 13-digit ISBN request will return a 13-digit ISBN response.
ISBN is valid
single ISBN linked to single work which has multiple ISBN's
All ISBN values are returned in a list: ISBN passed into the service is always returned as the first ISBN; Following the initial ISBN, values are returned ranked by holdings in WorldCat (i.e. number of libraries signifying ownership of item against respective bibliographic records) - order is descending (most held to least held).
For example, the URI http://old-xisbn.oclc.org/webservices/xisbn/0192816640 [The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker / George Tobias Smollett] returns XML:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<idlist>
<isbn>0192816640</isbn>
<isbn>0820312037</isbn>
<isbn>0820315370</isbn>
<isbn>0393015920</isbn>
<isbn>0393952274</isbn>
<isbn>0393952835</isbn>
<isbn>0140430210</isbn>
<isbn>0192811320</isbn>
<isbn>0192835947</isbn>
<isbn>0460872885</isbn>
<isbn>1853262706</isbn>
<isbn>0874131219</isbn>
</idlist>
Alternately if an XTHML response is preferred, the same query with the value ".html" appended - e.g., http://old-xisbn.oclc.org/webservices/xisbn/0192816640.html returns:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head><title>ISBN List</title></head> <body> <a>0192816640</a><br/> <a>0820312037</a><br/> <a>0820315370</a><br/> <a>0393015920</a><br/> <a>0393952274</a><br/> <a>0393952835</a><br/> <a>0140430210</a><br/> <a>0192811320</a><br/> <a>0192835947</a><br/> <a>0460872885</a><br/> <a>1853262706</a><br/> <a>0874131219</a><br/> </body> </html>
"one-off's" -- single ISBN linked to a single work which has only a single ISBN
- The ISBN value in the query is the only value returned
- For example: http://old-xisbn.oclc.org/webservices/xisbn/8878120677
[Seminario FRBR : Functional requirements for
bibliographic records = Requisiti funzionali per record
bibliografici : Firenze, 27-28 gennaio 2000 ]
returns:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> <idlist> <isbn>8878120677</isbn> </idlist>
valid ISBN but unknown to xISBN service (i.e. the ISBN does not appear in WorldCat) - same response as "one-off" ISBN:
- The ISBN value in the query is the only value returned
- For example: http://old-xisbn.oclc.org/webservices/xisbn/9570140445 [National Digital Archives Program 2003 (National Science Council, R.O.C.)] returns:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> <idlist> <isbn>9570140445</isbn> </idlist>
ISBN is invalid
If the ISBN does not appear to be a valid ISBN, then that it is tagged as an <unknownID> and returned.
For example: http://old-xisbn.oclc.org/webservices/xisbn/10001000 returns:<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<idlist>
<unknownID>10001000</unknownID>
</idlist>