WorldCat API

Exciting news from OCLC.

Now anyone and everyone can create apps and mash-ups using library data from WorldCat, the world's largest library catalog. Because the WorldCat Basic API is here!

This new API is a simplified version of the WorldCat Search API. Send it RESTful URI queries in OpenSearch, and it retrieves results in RSS or Atom. The WorldCat Basic API can support up to 1,000/queries per day for noncommercial use. In addition, the WorldCat Basic API provides:

• Information about books, videos, music and more in WorldCat
• Information about authors, titles, ISBNs and OCLC numbers
• Standard bibliographic citation formats in HTML (APA, Chicago, Harvard, MLA, and Turabian)
• A link back to WorldCat.org for geographically-sorted library information
• An easy way to include library results in comparison-shopping Web sites, mobile or Facebook apps

To gain access to the WorldCat Basic API, select the WorldCat Basic API on the WorldCat Affiliates Tools page. Sign in with your WorldCat Affiliates account (or create a new one) and then you'll be taken to a specific site where your individual WS Key will be auto-generated. Note if you already have a WorldCat Search API WSKey through your institution, then you do NOT need a WorldCat Basic API WSKey.