Integrations
Access Book and Author Data via Open Library
Connect AI assistants to Open Library for rich book and author data retrieval, including metadata, biographies, and cover images.
Without it
Stand up the Github server yourself — bot tokens or OAuth, a process to host and keep alive, updates to chase.
With it
Install once and it is wired straight into your agent.
What you get
- Search for books by title and retrieve detailed metadata.
- Find author information by name and retrieve biographical details.
- Obtain book cover URLs using various identifiers.
- Retrieve detailed book information using multiple identifier types.
Connect it yourself
Use hosted
Use this with MCP Gate
Connect this and other MCP tools to your agents through one endpoint, with usage billed in one place.
A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that provides tools for AI assistants to interact with the Open Library API, enabling search for information about books and authors with detailed metadata retrieval.
Installation
Smithery
npx -y @smithery/cli install @8enSmith/mcp-open-library --client claude
From Source
git clone https://github.com/8enSmith/mcp-open-library.git
cd mcp-open-library
npm install
npm run build
Docker
docker build -t mcp-open-library .
docker run -p 8080:8080 mcp-open-library
Available Tools
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
get_book_by_title |
Search for book information by title |
get_authors_by_name |
Search for author information by name |
get_author_info |
Get detailed information about a specific author using their Open Library Author Key |
get_author_photo |
Get author photo URL using their Open Library Author ID (OLID) |
get_book_cover |
Get book cover URL using a specific identifier (ISBN, OCLC, LCCN, OLID, or ID) |
get_book_by_id |
Get detailed book information using a specific identifier (ISBN, LCCN, OCLC, or OLID) |
Features
- Search books by title with detailed metadata
- Search authors by name with biographical information
- Get detailed author information using Open Library keys
- Get author photo URLs using Open Library ID (OLID)
- Get book cover URLs using various identifiers (ISBN, OCLC, LCCN, OLID, ID)
- Get detailed book information using multiple identifier types
- Returns structured data for book and author information
Usage Examples
Search for information about the book 'The Hobbit'
Find information about author 'J.R.R. Tolkien'
Get detailed author biography using Open Library author key
Get book cover for a specific ISBN
Find book details using various identifiers like ISBN or OCLC
Notes
Requires Node.js v22.21.1 for development. Can be tested using the MCP Inspector tool. Includes a comprehensive test suite and Docker support for containerized deployment.