Bibliographic Resource
The bibliographic resource provides access to the core data in the WorldCat Discovery API.
URLs and Supported Operations
Operation | Resource URL | HTTP METHOD | Response Code |
---|---|---|---|
Search | https://beta.worldcat.org/discovery/bib/search?q={query} | GET | 200 |
Read | https://beta.worldcat.org/discovery/bib/data/{OCLC_Number} | GET | 200 |
HTTP Accept Types
The Discovery API supports the following mime types:
- application/rdf+xml
- text/plain
- text/turtle
- application/ld+json
- application/json
This API uses OCLC's RDF-based data model. The primary vocabulary is based in schema.org with extensions for common components of bibliographic description.
To get a traditional web application view of the data, use the application/json
mime type. This mime type will provide valid RDF within a traditional nested data structure. The response will provide either a list of search results or an information resource as the root object.
Parameters
Parameter | Required? | Description | Expected/Sample Value |
---|---|---|---|
q | Yes | The query used to search WorldCat content. This field when stripped of leading and trailing whitespace cannot be an empty string. |
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dbIds | Yes | The database ID(s) to search within. For multiple values repeat the URL parameter. Only the databases configured for the institution are valid for a search query. Only databases that permit API access can be queried. |
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sortBy | No | Sort results by given values. Sort returns in ascending order. Known problem, sortBy=relevance and sortBy=library_plus_relevance are both providing a sortBy-relevance sort order. This bug will be addressed in an upcoming release. |
sortBy values:
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heldBy | No | Limiter to restrict search results to items held by a given institution(s). For multiple values repeat the URL parameter. |
OCLC Symbols
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notHeldBy | No | Limiter to restrict search results to items that are not held by a given institution(s). For multiple values repeat the URL parameter |
OCLC Symbols
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heldByGroup |
No | Limiter to restrict search results to items held by a given group(s). For multiple values repeat the URL parameter. Group symbols can be obtained from the library staff responsible for the configuration of your OCLC services. |
OCLC Group Symbols
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heldInCountry | No | Limiter to restrict search results to items held by institutions within a single geo-political state defined by ISO country code. |
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facetFields | No | Specify the facets to return with the search response. The facets parameter is multi-valued. You can send multiple values in one of two ways. For multiple values repeat the URL parameter.
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Facet values
Counts
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facetQueries | No | Specify the facet data used to refine a query. The facetQueries parameter is multi-valued. You can send multiple values in one of two ways. For multiple values repeat the URL parameter. |
Examples
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inLanguage | No | Limiter to restrict the response to the single specified language. |
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materialType | No | Limiter to restrict the response to the specified material type(s). For multiple values repeat the URL parameter.
|
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datePublished | No | Limiter to restrict the response to one or more dates or to a range. |
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inCatalogLanguage | No | Limiter to restrict the response to the single specified cataloging language. |
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catalogSource | No | Limiter to restrict the response to the single OCLC symbol as the cataloging source |
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itemType | No | Limiter to restrict the response to the single specified OCLC top-level facet type. |
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itemSubType | No | Limiter to restrict the response to the single specified OCLC sub facet type.
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itemsPerPage | No | Specify the number of results to return in the response. |
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startIndex | No | Specify the starting position for the search response. Must be a multiple of itemsPerPage. Index starts at zero. |
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peerReview | No | Limit results to items from peer reviewed journals. |
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useFRBRGrouping | No | Specify whether the response returns the representative record for the FRBR group. |
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All four of the following geo-coordinate parameters must be used together to limit queries to libraries within the defined radius | |||
lat | No | Defines the latitude, up to 9 digits, to be used to limit a query to libraries within the distance from the defined geographical point. |
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lon | No | Defines the longitude, up to 9 digits, to be used to limit a query to those items held by libraries within the distance from the defined geographical point. |
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distance | No | Limits the query to those items held by libraries within the defined distance from the given latitude and longitude. |
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unit | No | Defines whether distance is measured in miles (M) or kilometers (K). |
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Indices
Index Name | Description | Expected/Sample Value |
---|---|---|
name |
The name or title of a bibliographic resource |
Hamlet |
creator | The name of the author of a bibliographic resource au will be changed to "author:" in a future release in order to match the Schema.org author property |
Stoll |
about | The subjects pertaining to a bibliographic resource | Cookery |
contentLocation | The location of the publisher of the bibliographic resource | Amsterdam |
uniformName | The name or title of a bibliographic resource chosen to represent that resource if the resource has appeared under varying titles | Philosopher's Stone |
genre | The genre of a bibliographic resource | novel, screenplays |
publisher | Name or descriptive information for the publisher of a bibliographic resource | media, new star |
Most indices supported by the WorldShare and WorldCat Discovery interfaces, as described in the Searching WorldCat Indexes documentation are available in the WorldCat Discovery API except for several restricted indexes which are accessible via the parameters documented above. These are:
- Holding libraries (li), exposed in Discovery API as heldBy
- Language (ln), exposed as inLanguage
- Material type (mt), exposed as materialType; also use itemType and itemSubType
- Year (yr), exposed as datePublished
- Language of cataloging (ll), exposed as inCatalogLanguage
- Catalog source (cs), exposed as catalogSource
Example Requests using Indices
https://beta.worldcat.org/discovery/bib/search?q=businesses+utilities+and+transportation+AND+creator:Stoll
https://beta.worldcat.org/discovery/bib/search?q=nutrition+AND+about:agriculture+AND+cookery
https://beta.worldcat.org/discovery/bib/search?q=art+collecting+AND+contentLocation:amsterdam
https://beta.worldcat.org/discovery/bib/search?q=nutrition+AND+illness+AND+uniformName:school
https://beta.worldcat.org/discovery/bib/search?q=name:Harry+Potter+and+the+Sorcerer's+Stone
https://beta.worldcat.org/discovery/bib/search?q=genre:novel
https://beta.worldcat.org/discovery/bib/search?q=publisher:Dimension