librarything.com APIlibrarything.com ↗
Access LibraryThing book metadata, reviews, member libraries, ISBN lookup, author works, and trending titles via 8 structured API endpoints.
curl -X GET 'https://api.parse.bot/scraper/3d9464c3-0d24-43d1-aa57-2730bf0b431d/search_books?limit=3&query=tolkien' \ -H 'X-API-Key: $PARSE_API_KEY'
Search for books by keyword using the LibraryThing REST API. Returns matching works with title, author, and rating.
| Param | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| limit | integer | Maximum number of results to return |
| queryrequired | string | Search keyword or phrase |
{
"type": "object",
"fields": {
"results": "array of objects with work_id, title, author, rating, url"
},
"sample": {
"data": {
"results": [
{
"url": "http://www.librarything.com/work/113",
"title": "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire",
"author": "J. K. Rowling",
"rating": 4.35,
"work_id": "113"
}
]
},
"status": "success"
}
}About the librarything.com API
The LibraryThing API exposes 8 endpoints covering book search, detailed metadata, member library catalogs, ISBN lookup, and site-wide trending statistics. You can call search_books to find works by keyword, get_book_by_isbn to resolve a specific edition, or get_member_library to page through any user's cataloged collection — each returning structured fields like work_id, rating, author, and publication date.
Book Search and Metadata
The search_books endpoint accepts a query string and an optional limit, returning an array of matching works with work_id, title, author, rating (0–5 scale), and a direct url. For deeper metadata on a specific work, get_book_details takes a numeric work_id and returns description, original_publication_date, and rating alongside the core title and author fields. get_book_by_isbn accepts ISBN-10 or ISBN-13 strings and resolves the edition back to a canonical work_id with title, author, and rating — useful for enriching records that start from a barcode or retail catalog.
Reviews, Tags, and Author Works
get_book_reviews returns paginated reader reviews for a given work_id, each with user, rating, text, and date. The page parameter steps through large review sets. get_tag_books accepts a tag string (e.g. 'fiction' or 'science') and returns books carrying that tag, including tag_count per book — a proxy for how strongly a community associates a title with the tag. get_author_works takes an author slug such as 'rowlingjk' and returns that author's catalog as an array of {work_id, title, url} objects.
Member Libraries and Zeitgeist
get_member_library pages through any LibraryThing member's personal catalog by username, with offset and limit controls. Each book record includes entry_date (when the member added it), date (publication year), and the member's own rating. The get_zeitgeist_books endpoint, when called with category set to 'overview', returns site-wide statistics (members, books cataloged, reviews), most_reviewed_books, most_cataloged_books, and top_authors — useful for understanding aggregate reading trends across the platform.
- Resolve ISBNs from a retail or library inventory into structured book metadata using
get_book_by_isbn - Build a reading-trend dashboard by polling
get_zeitgeist_booksfor most-cataloged and most-reviewed titles - Aggregate community reviews for a title by paging through
get_book_reviewswith thepageparameter - Reconstruct a user's reading history by fetching their full catalog via
get_member_librarywithoffsetpagination - Populate a genre or subject page by pulling books from a specific tag using
get_tag_bookswithtag_countfor relevance ranking - Enumerate an author's bibliography by calling
get_author_workswith the author's slug and collectingwork_idreferences - Enrich a book recommendation engine with
get_book_detailsfields likedescriptionandoriginal_publication_date
| Tier | Price | Credits/month | Rate limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo | 100 | 5 req/min |
| Hobby | $30/mo | 1,000 | 20 req/min |
| Developer | $100/mo | 5,000 | 250 req/min |
One credit = one API call regardless of which marketplace API you call. Exceeding the rate limit returns a 429 response. Authenticate with the X-API-Key header.
Does LibraryThing have an official developer API?+
What does `get_book_reviews` return, and can I filter reviews by rating?+
user, rating, text, and date for the given work_id. Pagination is controlled by the page parameter. The endpoint does not currently expose a rating filter — you receive all reviews for a page and can filter by rating value on the client side.Are book covers or edition-level details (publisher, page count, format) available?+
title, author, description, original_publication_date, and rating, but does not expose cover image URLs, publisher, page count, or format. You can fork this API on Parse and revise it to add an endpoint that surfaces those edition-level fields.How does the `tags` field in `get_book_details` behave?+
tags array in get_book_details is reserved and currently returns empty. Tag-to-book relationships are exposed through the separate get_tag_books endpoint, which accepts a tag string and returns books with associated tag_count values.Does the API expose private or friends-only member libraries?+
get_member_library returns catalog entries for any publicly visible LibraryThing username. Libraries that a member has set to private on LibraryThing are not accessible — those books will not appear in the response. The API covers only the public-facing catalog.