Re: API for book descriptions?

From: Pikas, Christina K. <Christina.Pikas_at_nyob> Date: Wed, 16 May 2018 12:39:43 +0000 To: CODE4LIB_at_LISTS.CLIR.ORG

Ohhh. That looks promising - the Amazon API looks like to comes with a lot of baggage now. 

Thanks all,
Christina

-----Original Message-----
From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB_at_LISTS.CLIR.ORG] On Behalf Of Mark Watkins
Sent: Wednesday, May 16, 2018 8:38 AM
To: CODE4LIB_at_LISTS.CLIR.ORG
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] API for book descriptions?

Hi Christina,

You might consider the Harvard Open Metadata APIs, if they contain the works you are interested in. Free API and unlicensed content (the Amazon APIs do come with a license agreement/restrictions). 

Doc here: https://wiki.harvard.edu/confluence/display/LibraryStaffDoc/LibraryCloud+Item+API

Example: https://api.lib.harvard.edu/v2/items?title=gates%20of%20fire&name=pressfield (which gets you an XML file with a lot of metadata including descriptions).

You can also search by ISBN. 

If your works are in their DB, it's a great choice.

Mark