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WorldCat Discovery API

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:

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.
  • hamlet
  • linked+data
  • name:hamlet
  • about:linguistics+author:kenney
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.
  • 638
  • 239
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:

  • relevance (default)
  • library_plus_relevance
  • creator
  • title
  • date
  • language
  • year
  • librarycount
heldBy No

Limiter to restrict search results to items held by a given institution(s). For multiple values repeat the URL parameter.

OCLC Symbols

  • OCPSB
  • OCWMS
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

  • OCPSB
  • OCWMS
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

  • OHLL
  • OSUL
heldInCountry No Limiter to restrict search results to items held by institutions within a single geo-political state defined by ISO country code.
  • US
  • AU
  • GB
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.

 

Facet values

  • about
  • creator
  • datePublished
  • genre
  • itemType
  • itemSubType
  • inLanguage

Counts

  • 10
  • 25
  • 50
  • 100
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

  • itemType:book
  • inLanguage:eng
  • creator:smith,+adam
inLanguage No Limiter to restrict the response to the single specified language.
  • eng
  • fre
  • ger
materialType No

Limiter to restrict the response to the specified material type(s). For multiple values repeat the URL parameter.

 
  • URL
  • LPS
datePublished No

Limiter to restrict the response to one or more dates or to a range.
  • 2000
  • 2000-2010
  • 1990, 1991
inCatalogLanguage No Limiter to restrict the response to the single specified cataloging language.
  • dut
  • eng
catalogSource No Limiter to restrict the response to the single OCLC symbol as the cataloging source
  • OSL
itemType No Limiter to restrict the response to the single specified OCLC top-level facet type.
  • artchap
  • book
  • image
  • compfile
itemSubType No

Limiter to restrict the response to the single specified OCLC sub facet type.

 
  • digital
  • dvd
itemsPerPage No Specify the number of results to return in the response.
  • 10 - default
  • 25
  • 50
  • 100
startIndex No Specify the starting position for the search response.  Must be a multiple of itemsPerPage.  Index starts at zero.
  • the first integer for the given range specified in itemsPerPage
peerReview No Limit results to items from peer reviewed journals.
  • true - default
  • false
useFRBRGrouping No Specify whether the response returns the representative record for the FRBR group.
  • true - default
  • false
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.
  • &lat=39.95674
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.
  • &lon=-82.934339&
distance No Limits the query to those items held by libraries within the defined distance from the given latitude and longitude.
  • &distance=10
unit No Defines whether distance is measured in miles (M) or kilometers (K).
  • &unit=M

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