A new WorldCat API available to all
Now anyone and everyone can create apps and mash-ups using library data from WorldCat, because the WorldCat Basic API is here!
This new API is a simple interface to WorldCat. It's envisioned to be most useful for lightweight or mobile apps, developed by people outside the library space. Still, anyone is welcome to build noncommercial services with it. [Commercial services are also welcome, but they must go through the WorldCat partnership team to gain access.]
It supports up to 1,000/queries per day in OpenSearch and retrieves results in RSS or Atom. It also 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 and then you'll be taken to a specific site where your individual WS Key will be auto-generated. If you already have a WorldCat Search API WSKey, then you do NOT need a WorldCat Basic API WSKey.
By making the collective library data in WorldCat as accessible as possible to ALL developers, we hope to generate more awareness and traffic to libraries in general. Which is really good for everybody, isn't it?
Happy coding! We'll be excited to see what new and interesting apps and mashups you create!
