Open Library

From IndieWeb

Open Library is an Internet Archive project to create a page for every book, and provide cover images and the ability to borrow or read as many as possible.

How To

Build an ISBN link

If you would like to link books you mention to their page on Open Library, append the ISBN to:

https://openlibrary.org/isbn/

This should work with either ISBN-13 or ISBN-10. Open Library will redirect to their permalink for the book using their own internal ID.

In some cases, a book may not be on Open Library yet, but you can add them. See #Edit pages.

Edit pages

You can sign in with your Internet Archive account to edit pages on Open Library.

See the Open Library FAQs: https://openlibrary.org/help/faq/editing#editing-rights

Import / Export

The library allows for import of one's Goodreads reading lists: https://openlibrary.org/account/import as well as downloading a .csv export of your reading list.

Scan Barcodes

OpenLibrary has a browser-based, mobile-friendly barcode scanner in beta at: https://openlibrary.org/barcodescanner

IndieWeb Examples

  • zacharykaiwrites has a profile there and often contributes edits.
  • gRegor Morrill: I currently publish ISBN links that redirect to OpenLibrary, described in more detail in my read post example. If a book I'm adding to my list is not already on OpenLibrary, I'll contribute edits to add it.
    • I also am working on adding OpenLibrary search support to indiebookclub
  • benji: Books in my read list link to their corresponding "work" on OpenLibrary.
    • Sparkles uses OpenLibrary's API to search for books and adds relevant data to the read post.
  • Add yourself here… (see this for more details)

See Also