Best for
- AI assistants or chatbots that want to query book and author information in natural language.
- Applications needing structured book data integration.
M
MCP Open Library
Community
A Model Context Protocol server for the Internet Archive's Open Library API enabling AI assistants to search for book and author information.
GitHub source repository ↗
62FMRS · C
The server offers a variety of tools covering common operations from search to detailed info, with clean structured output, easy to integrate. However, it relies on a public API and lacks caching or rate limiting, suitable for lightweight queries.
This project implements an MCP server that provides tools for AI assistants to interact with the Open Library. It allows searching for book information by title, searching for authors by name, retrieving detailed author information using their Open Library key, and getting URLs for author photos using their Open Library ID (OLID). The server returns structured data for book and author information.
Tools
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 for a specific author using their Open Library Author Key.
get_author_photo
Get the URL for an author's photo using their Open Library Author ID (OLID).
get_book_cover
Get the URL for a book's cover image 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).
Setup
- Clone the repository: git clone https://github.com/8enSmith/mcp-open-library.git
- cd mcp-open-library
- npm install
- npm run build
- Run the server (e.g., using the MCP Inspector or configure an MCP client).
Alternatively, install via Smithery for Claude Desktop: npx -y @smithery/cli install @8enSmith/mcp-open-library --client claude.
Fit and risk
Not for
- Comprehensive book catalog management for commercial use, as data comes from a public API and may be incomplete or delayed.
- Use cases requiring real-time updates or high-frequency polling.
- Scenarios requiring authentication or access to restricted resources.
Required permissions
- Access to the Open Library public API (no authentication).
- Communication via STDIO transport with MCP clients.
Risks and side effects
- Dependency on external API; service may be unavailable due to network issues or API changes.
- Data may be outdated or incomplete.
- No rate limiting implemented; excessive requests could trigger Open Library restrictions.
Troubleshooting
- Ensure Node.js version is v22.21.1 or later (if using nvm, run `nvm use`).
- Run `npm run build` to build the latest code.
- In the MCP Inspector, ensure the command is set to `build/index.js` and choose and connect STDIO transport.
- Check API accessibility by directly hitting the Open Library API.
Use cases
Search for book information within an AI assistant, e.g., find a book by title.
Find author information and author photos.
Get URLs for book cover images.
Look up detailed book information by identifier like ISBN.
Supported clients
Claude DesktopFull support