The books collection provides information about books. You can get to a set of books by keywords, subjects, ISBNs, etc.

The base URL for the books collection access is:

Arguments

isbn

Search on ISBN, value is set the ISBN you are interested in. For example:

/api/books.xml?access_key=Z&index1=isbn&value1=0061031321

The returned results subset consists of zero or at most one member for this search type, ISBN records are unique in the database.

title

Keywords search on book title, long title, and latin-ized title for unicode titles. Example:

/api/books.xml?access_key=Z&index1=title&value1=thief+of+time

The search follows the same rules and syntax as the search on the website itself -- you can group words together using double quotes, all non-ignored words must be present in the results.

combined

Search index that combines titles, authors, and publisher name. Example:

/api/books.xml?access_key=Z&index1=combined&value1=hacks+by+o'reilly

This helps to answer queries "Title by John Doe" that many seem to type when searching for a book. Another possibility is searching for a book with a generic title and qualifying it by author or publisher as in the example above -- looking for O'Reilly's "hacks" serie.

full

Search index that includes titles, authors, publisher name, summary, notes, awards information, etc -- practically every bit of textual information ISBNdb.com has about books. Example:

/api/books.xml?access_key=Z&index1=full&value1=221b+baker+street

This helps to find books where some phrase or keywords are mentioned in other textual fields. The search above, for instance, comes up with a Rex Stout book that only mentions this address in its annotation.

book_id

Retrieving book data by ISBNdb.com's book ID. Returns at most one match. Example:

/api/books.xml?access_key=Z&index1=book_id&value1=fer_de_lance

person_id

Retrieves a list of books by the given author, editor, etc. The ID of the person needs to be first retrieved by searching on 'persons' collection. Example:

/api/books.xml?access_key=Z&index1=person_id&value1=doyle_arthur_conan

publisher_id

Retrieves a list of books by the given publisher ID that can be retrieved by searching on the 'publishers' collection or by a reference from another book's data. Example:

/api/books.xml?access_key=Z&index1=publisher_id&value1=oreilly

subject_id

Retrieves a list of books on the given subject. The subject ID can be looked up by searching in 'subjects' collection or by a reference from another book. Example:

/api/books.xml?access_key=Z&index1=subject_id&value1=artificial_intelligence

dewey_decimal

Retrieves a list of books by the given Dewey Decimal Classification number. Example:

/api/books.xml?access_key=Z&index1=dewey_decimal&value1=302.2/3

Or using DDC class:

/api/books.xml?access_key=Z&index1=dewey_decimal&value1=302

lcc_number

Retrieves a list of books by the given Library of Congress Classification number. Example:

/api/books.xml?access_key=Z&index1=lcc_number&value1=PN4888

Results

details

Show more details about books -- LCC and Dewey decimal classification, release data, etc. Example:

/api/books.xml?access_key=Z&results=details&index1=isbn&value1=0061031321

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<ISBNdb server_time="2005-07-29T02:41:22">
 <BookList total_results="1" page_size="10" page_number="1" shown_results="1">
  <BookData book_id="law_and_disorder" isbn="0210406240">
   <Title>Law and disorder</Title>
   <TitleLong>
    Law and disorder: law enforcement in television network news
   </TitleLong>
   <AuthorsText>V. M. Mishra</AuthorsText>
   <PublisherText publisher_id="asia_pub_house">
    New York: Asia Pub. House, c1979.
   </PublisherText>
   <Details dewey_decimal="302.2/3"
            dewey_decimal_normalized="302.23"
            lcc_number="PN4888"
            language="eng"
            physical_description_text="x, 127 p. ; 22 cm."
            edition_info=""
            change_time="2004-10-19T23:52:56"
            price_time="2005-07-29T02:06:41" />
  </BookData>
 </BookList>
</ISBNdb>

Attributes in the Details tag have the following meaning:

• dewey_decimal - Dewey Decimal Classification number for the book as received from libraries.
• dewey_decimal_normalized - Normalized Dewey Decimal Classification number. Unfortunately, in many cases the number as received has inconsistent characters or formatting. This attribute represents our best effort at normalizing it.
• lcc_number - Library of Congress Classification number.
• language - Language code for the book.
• physical_description_text - free form text describing physical characteristics of the book.
• edition_info - free form text describing a particular edition of some text represented by this book.
• change_time - timestamp of the last change to the book's data
• price_time - timestamp of the last prices update for the book. You can use 'prices' results code to retrieve actual price records.

texts

Show textual blocks for the book -- notes, summary, awards information, related URLs, etc.

/api/books.xml?access_key=Z&results=texts&index1=isbn&value1=0061031321

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<ISBNdb server_time="2005-07-29T03:02:22">
 <BookList total_results="1" page_size="10" page_number="1" shown_results="1">
  <BookData book_id="paul_laurence_dunbar" isbn="0766013502">
   <Title>Paul Laurence Dunbar</Title>
   <TitleLong>Paul Laurence Dunbar: portrait of a poet</TitleLong>
   <AuthorsText>Catherine Reef</AuthorsText>
   <PublisherText publisher_id="enslow_publishers">Berkeley Heights, NJ:
    Enslow Publishers, c2000.</PublisherText>
   <Summary>
      A biography of the poet who faced racism and devoted himself to
      depicting the black experience in America.
   </Summary>
   <Notes>
      "Works by Paul Laurence Dunbar": p. 113-114.
      Includes bibliographical references (p. 124) and index.
   </Notes>
   <UrlsText></UrlsText>
   <AwardsText></AwardsText>
  </BookData>
 </BookList>
</ISBNdb>

Text values returned are free-form and can be relatively large -- up to several kb.

prices

Show current prices for the found books. Here is an example:

/api/books.xml?access_key=Z&results=prices&index1=isbn&value1=0061031321

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<ISBNdb server_time="2005-07-29T01:39:11">
 <BookList total_results="1" page_size="10" page_number="1" shown_results="1">
  <BookData book_id="thief_of_time" isbn="0061031321">
   <Title>Thief of Time</Title>
   <TitleLong></TitleLong>
   <AuthorsText>Terry Pratchett, </AuthorsText>
   <PublisherText>HarperTorch</PublisherText>
   <Prices>
    <Price store_isbn="" store_title=""
     store_url="http://isbndb.com/x/book/thief_of_time/buy/isbn/ecampus.html"
     store_id="ecampus" currency_code="USD" is_in_stock="1" is_new="1"
     check_time="2005-07-29T01:18:18" currency_rate="1" price="5.25"/>
    <Price store_isbn="" store_title=""
     store_url="http://isbndb.com/x/book/thief_of_time/buy/isbn/alibris.html"
     store_id="alibris" currency_code="USD" is_in_stock="1" is_new="1"
     check_time="2005-07-29T01:18:19" currency_rate="1" price="6.75" />
    <Price store_isbn="" store_title=""
     store_url="http://isbndb.com/x/book/thief_of_time/buy/isbn/abebooks.html"
     store_id="abebooks" currency_code="USD" is_in_stock="1" is_new="0"
     check_time="2005-07-29T01:18:19" currency_rate="1" price="2" />
    <Price store_isbn="" store_title=""
     store_url="http://www.biblio.com/details.php?dcx=33695224&aid=isbndb"
     store_id="biblio" currency_code="USD" is_in_stock="1" is_new="0"
     check_time="2005-07-29T01:18:19" currency_rate="1" price="4.5" />
    <Price store_isbn="" store_title=""
     store_url="http://isbndb.com/x/book/thief_of_time/buy/isbn/amazon.html"
     store_id="amazon" currency_code="USD" is_in_stock="1" is_new="0"
     check_time="2005-07-29T01:18:19" currency_rate="1" price="0.99" />
    <Price store_isbn="" store_title=""
     store_url="http://isbndb.com/x/book/thief_of_time/buy/isbn/amazon.html"
     store_id="amazon" currency_code="USD" is_in_stock="1" is_new="1"
     check_time="2005-07-29T01:18:19" currency_rate="1" price="7.5" />
   </Prices>
  </BookData>
 </BookList>
</ISBNdb>

Most attributes of the resulting 'Prices' tag are self-descriptive, but here is a short summary:

• store_id - merchant store identificator
• store_url - URL of this book at the merchant's site. Note, that oftentimes links go through ISBNdb.com redirection and ISBNdb.com receives a small percentage of sales generated through the use of these links. Since ISBNdb.com is an independent company such revenue share and advertisements are the only source of our income. Please consider using these links.
• store_title - book title at the merchant if different from ISBNdb.com's title
• store_isbn - book ISBN at the merchant store if different from ISBNdb.com's
• currency_code - currency code for the price
• currency_rate - currency rate to USD at the time of price query
• is_new - 1 if the book is new, 0 if the book is being resold used
• is_in_stock - 1 if the merchant reports book in stock, 0 otherwise
• is_historic - 1 if the price was overriden by a newer record, 0 for current prices
• check_time - timestamp of when the price record was received from the merchant

Caution: You need to pay attention to 'check_time' and 'is_historic' attributes. Even if you see that is_historic equals zero, but the check_time is 24 hours or more in the past -- you should consider this price a historic one. The server notices that too when returning results of your request and will schedule the book for a re-query -- you might want to send another prices request in 30 seconds or so to get updated prices.

pricehistory

The same as 'prices', but the results are not limited to most current prices -- including full set of historic prices known for the books. Note that amount of historic records depends on book popularity and on how frequently prices change for a given book -- a new record is stored only if it is different from the previous one, without strong correspondence to specific points in time.

subjects

This argument tells ISBNdb.com server to return a list of subjects for each book found. Here is an example:

/api/books.xml?access_key=Z&results=subjects&index1=combined&value1=law+disorder

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<ISBNdb server_time="2005-07-29T02:23:10">
 <BookList total_results="1" page_size="10" page_number="1" shown_results="1">
  <BookData book_id="law_and_disorder" isbn="0210406240">
   <Title>Law and disorder</Title>
   <TitleLong>
    Law and disorder: law enforcement in television network news
   </TitleLong>
   <AuthorsText>V. M. Mishra</AuthorsText>
   <PublisherText>New York : Asia Pub. House, c1979.</PublisherText>
   <Subjects>
    <Subject subject_id="television_broadcasting_of_news_united_states">
     Television broadcasting of news -- United States
    </Subject>
    <Subject subject_id="journalism_objectivity">
     Journalism -- Objectivity
    </Subject>
    <Subject subject_id="crime_and_the_press_united_states">
     Crime and the press -- United States
    </Subject>
    <Subject subject_id="police_and_the_press_united_states">
     Police and the press -- United States
    </Subject>
    <Subject subject_id="violence_on_television">
     Violence on television
    </Subject>
   </Subjects>
  </BookData>
 </BookList>
</ISBNdb>

Additional information on subjects (subject composition, parts, etc) can be found by queries on 'subjects' data collection. You can also search for additional books on these subjects by using 'subject_id' index described above in this section.

marc

This argument tells ISBNdb.com server to return a list of URLs to the book's MARC records if it has any. Here is an example:

/api/books.xml?access_key=Z&results=marc&index1=isbn&value1=0585329516

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<ISBNdb server_time="2006-02-14T04:13:05">
 <BookList total_results="1" page_size="10" page_number="1" shown_results="1">
  <BookData book_id="1001_vocabulary_and_spelling_questions" isbn="0585329516">
   <Title>1001 vocabulary and spelling questions</Title>
   <PublisherText publisher_id="learningexpress">
     New York : LearningExpress, 1999.
   </PublisherText>
   <MARCRecords>
    <MARC library_name="North Carolina (Coastal) Database"
          last_update="2003-11-11T16:06:27"
          marc_url="http://isbndb.com/x/libdata/isbndb-122-1001_vocabulary_and_spelling_questions-20031111.mrc"
    />
    <MARC library_name="North Carolina (Western) Database"
          last_update="2005-01-14T04:38:38"
          marc_url="http://isbndb.com/x/libdata/isbndb-297-1001_vocabulary_and_spelling_questions-20050113.mrc"
    />
    <MARC library_name="Morehead State University (Morehead, KY)"
          last_update="2005-10-14T20:59:08"
          marc_url="http://isbndb.com/x/libdata/isbndb-75-1001_vocabulary_and_spelling_questions-20051014.mrc"
    />
   </MARCRecords>
  </BookData>
 </BookList>
</ISBNdb>

authors

This argument tells ISBNdb.com server to return a list of authors, editors, etc for each book found. Here is an example:

/api/books.xml?access_key=Z&results=authors&index1=book_id&value1=law_and_disorder

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<ISBNdb server_time="2006-08-03T15:24:57">
 <BookList total_results="1" page_size="10" page_number="1" shown_results="1">
  <BookData book_id="law_and_disorder" isbn="0210406240">
   <Title>Law and disorder</Title>
   <TitleLong>Law and disorder: law enforcement in television network news</TitleLong>
   <AuthorsText>V. M. Mishra</AuthorsText>
   <PublisherText publisher_id="asia_pub_house">New York : Asia Pub. House, c1979.</PublisherText>
   <Authors>
    <Person person_id="mishra_vishwa_mohan">Mishra, Vishwa Mohan</Person>
   </Authors>
  </BookData>
 </BookList>
</ISBNdb>

Additional information on authors can be found by queries on 'authors' data collection.