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Search API

Search API

Input:

Parameter Description
api_key A personal key (mandatory) that the user receives after logging in to our API system. The personal key must be used as parameter value for {USER_KEY}.
search_string Holds a basic search query (mandatory). Basic queries must include at least a three character string over one of the search attributes.

Basic Search

A list of valid attributes and valid values for queries (mandatory) is available here.

Example of a basic search: https://api.nli.org.il/openlibrary/search?api_key={USER_KEY}&query=title,exact,Jerusalem

Advanced Search

Input:

Parameter Parameter Description
api_key api_key A personal key that the user receives after logging in to our API system. The personal key must be used as parameter value for {USER_KEY}.
search_string   Holds a query (mandatory), and additional optional parameters, such as material_type, output_format, availability_type, sort_field, count_mode, items_per_page, result_page.
  query A query (mandatory) that is part of a search_string, and which supports filtering by multiple attributes and internal rules. The full list of valid attributes, valid values and rules includes:
  • Valid operators
  • Valid language abbreviations
  • Valid date format
  material_type A list of material types can be found here
  output_format A list of output formats can be found here
  availability_type A list of availability types can be found here
  sort_field A list of sort field attributes can be found here
  count_mode Yes / No (default=no)

Example of a query string (that is part of the search string):

query=title,exact,jerusalem,AND;creator,contains,Jerusalem,AND;language,exact,eng,AND;start_date,contains,1951&sortField=title&output_format=xml

Example of an advanced search:

https://api.nli.org.il/openlibrary/search?api_key={USER_KEY}&query=title,exact,jerusalem,AND;creator,contains,Jerusalem,AND;language,exact,eng,AND;start_date,contains,1951&sortField=title&output_format=xml

Guest User

A guest user account can be used to access the web services available on the National Library of Israel network.

A guest user account can also be used on a trial basis in order to get familiar with the National Library of Israel's API system.

Guest user accounts have limited access permissions and can only perform a limited amount of queries.

We recommend signing up  to gain full access to our system.

Guest user API Key: DVQyidFLOAjp12ib92pNJPmflmB5IessOq1CJQDK