MCP Open Library

1# MCP Open Library
2 
3[![Trust Score](https://archestra.ai/mcp-catalog/api/badge/quality/8enSmith/mcp-open-library)](https://archestra.ai/mcp-catalog/8ensmith__mcp-open-library)
4[![smithery badge](https://smithery.ai/badge/@8enSmith/mcp-open-library)](https://smithery.ai/server/@8enSmith/mcp-open-library)
5 
6A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for the Open Library API that enables AI assistants to search for book and author information.
7 
8<a href="https://glama.ai/mcp/servers/@8enSmith/mcp-open-library">
9  <img width="380" height="200" src="https://glama.ai/mcp/servers/@8enSmith/mcp-open-library/badge" alt="mcp-open-library MCP server" />
10</a>
11 
12## Overview
13 
14This project implements an MCP server that provides tools for AI assistants to interact with the [Open Library](https://openlibrary.org/). 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.
15 
16## Features
17 
18- **Book Search by Title**: Search for books using their title (`get_book_by_title`).
19- **Author Search by Name**: Search for authors using their name (`get_authors_by_name`).
20- **Get Author Details**: Retrieve detailed information for a specific author using their Open Library key (`get_author_info`).
21- **Get Author Photo**: Get the URL for an author's photo using their Open Library ID (OLID) (`get_author_photo`).
22- **Get Book Cover**: Get the URL for a book's cover image using various identifiers (ISBN, OCLC, LCCN, OLID, ID) (`get_book_cover`).
23- **Get Book by ID**: Retrieve detailed book information using various identifiers (ISBN, LCCN, OCLC, OLID) (`get_book_by_id`).
24 
25## Installation
26 
27### Installing via Smithery
28 
29To install MCP Open Library for Claude Desktop automatically via [Smithery](https://smithery.ai/server/@8enSmith/mcp-open-library):
30 
31```bash
32npx -y @smithery/cli install @8enSmith/mcp-open-library --client claude
33```
34 
35### Manual Installation
36```bash
37# Clone the repository
38git clone https://github.com/8enSmith/mcp-open-library.git
39cd mcp-open-library
40 
41# Install dependencies
42npm install
43 
44# Build the project
45npm run build
46```
47 
48## Usage
49 
50### Running the Server
51 
52  1. Ensure you are running node v22.21.1 (it'll probably work on a newer version of node but this is what Im using for this test). If you have `nvm` installed run `nvm use`.
53  2. In the `mcp-open-library` root directory run `npm run build`
54  3. Next run `npm run inspector`. Once built, click the URL with the `MCP_PROXY_AUTH_TOKEN` query string parameter to open the Inspector.
55  4. In the Inspector, choose 'STDIO' transport
56  5. Make sure the command is set to 'build/index.js'
57  6. Click the 'Connect' button in the Inspector - you'll now connect to the server
58  7. Click 'Tools' in the top right menu bar
59  8. Try running a tool e.g. click get_book_by_title
60  9. Search for a book e.g. In the title box enter 'The Hobbit' and then click 'Run Tool'. Server will then return book details.
61 
62### Using with an MCP Client
63 
64This server implements the Model Context Protocol, which means it can be used by any MCP-compatible AI assistant or client e.g. [Claude Desktop](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/quickstart/user). The server exposes the following tools:
65 
66- `get_book_by_title`: Search for book information by title
67- `get_authors_by_name`: Search for author information by name
68- `get_author_info`: Get detailed information for a specific author using their Open Library Author Key
69- `get_author_photo`: Get the URL for an author's photo using their Open Library Author ID (OLID)
70- `get_book_cover`: Get the URL for a book's cover image using a specific identifier (ISBN, OCLC, LCCN, OLID, or ID)
71- `get_book_by_id`: Get detailed book information using a specific identifier (ISBN, LCCN, OCLC, or OLID)
72 
73**Example `get_book_by_title` input:**
74```json
75{
76  "title": "The Hobbit"
77}
78```
79 
80**Example `get_book_by_title` output:**
81```json
82[
83  {
84    "title": "The Hobbit",
85    "authors": [
86      "J. R. R. Tolkien"
87    ],
88    "first_publish_year": 1937,
89    "open_library_work_key": "/works/OL45883W",
90    "edition_count": 120,
91    "cover_url": "https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/10581294-M.jpg"
92  }
93]
94```
95 
96**Example `get_authors_by_name` input:**
97```json
98{
99  "name": "J.R.R. Tolkien"
100}
101```
102 
103**Example `get_authors_by_name` output:**
104```json
105[
106  {
107    "key": "OL26320A",
108    "name": "J. R. R. Tolkien",
109    "alternate_names": [
110      "John Ronald Reuel Tolkien"
111    ],
112    "birth_date": "3 January 1892",
113    "top_work": "The Hobbit",
114    "work_count": 648
115  }
116]
117```
118 
119**Example `get_author_info` input:**
120```json
121{
122  "author_key": "OL26320A"
123}
124```
125 
126**Example `get_author_info` output:**
127```json
128{
129  "name": "J. R. R. Tolkien",
130  "personal_name": "John Ronald Reuel Tolkien",
131  "birth_date": "3 January 1892",
132  "death_date": "2 September 1973",
133  "bio": "John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892-1973) was a major scholar of the English language, specializing in Old and Middle English. He served as the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon and later the Merton Professor of English Language and Literature at Oxford University.",
134  "alternate_names": ["John Ronald Reuel Tolkien"],
135  "photos": [6791763],
136  "key": "/authors/OL26320A",
137  "remote_ids": {
138    "viaf": "95218067",
139    "wikidata": "Q892"
140  },
141  "revision": 43,
142  "last_modified": {
143    "type": "/type/datetime",
144    "value": "2023-02-12T05:50:22.881"
145  }
146}
147```
148 
149**Example `get_author_photo` input:**
150```json
151{
152  "olid": "OL26320A"
153}
154```
155 
156**Example `get_author_photo` output:**
157```text
158https://covers.openlibrary.org/a/olid/OL26320A-L.jpg
159```
160 
161**Example `get_book_cover` input:**
162```json
163{
164  "key": "ISBN",
165  "value": "9780547928227",
166  "size": "L"
167}
168```
169 
170**Example `get_book_cover` output:**
171```text
172https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9780547928227-L.jpg
173```
174 
175The `get_book_cover` tool accepts the following parameters:
176- `key`: The type of identifier (one of: `ISBN`, `OCLC`, `LCCN`, `OLID`, or `ID`)
177- `value`: The value of the identifier
178- `size`: Optional cover size (`S` for small, `M` for medium, `L` for large, defaults to `L`)
179 
180**Example `get_book_by_id` input:**
181```json
182{
183  "idType": "isbn",
184  "idValue": "9780547928227"
185}
186```
187 
188**Example `get_book_by_id` output:**
189```json
190{
191  "title": "The Hobbit",
192  "authors": [
193    "J. R. R. Tolkien"
194  ],
195  "publishers": [
196    "Houghton Mifflin Harcourt"
197  ],
198  "publish_date": "October 21, 2012",
199  "number_of_pages": 300,
200  "isbn_13": [
201    "9780547928227"
202  ],
203  "isbn_10": [
204    "054792822X"
205  ],
206  "oclc": [
207    "794607877"
208  ],
209  "olid": [
210    "OL25380781M"
211  ],
212  "open_library_edition_key": "/books/OL25380781M",
213  "open_library_work_key": "/works/OL45883W",
214  "cover_url": "https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/8231496-M.jpg",
215  "info_url": "https://openlibrary.org/books/OL25380781M/The_Hobbit",
216  "preview_url": "https://archive.org/details/hobbit00tolkien"
217}
218```
219 
220The `get_book_by_id` tool accepts the following parameters:
221- `idType`: The type of identifier (one of: `isbn`, `lccn`, `oclc`, `olid`)
222- `idValue`: The value of the identifier
223 
224An example of this tool being used in Claude Desktop can be see here:
225 
226<img width="1132" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/0865904a-f984-4f7b-a27d-6397ac59d6d2" />
227 
228### Docker
229 
230You can test this MCP server using Docker. To do this first run:
231 
232```bash
233docker build -t mcp-open-library .
234docker run -p 8080:8080 mcp-open-library
235```
236 
237You can then test the server running within Docker via the inspector e.g.
238 
239```bash
240npm run inspector http://localhost:8080
241```
242 
243## Development
244 
245### Project Structure
246 
247- `src/index.ts` - Main server implementation
248- `src/types.ts` - TypeScript type definitions
249- `src/index.test.ts` - Test suite
250 
251### Available Scripts
252 
253- `npm run build` - Build the TypeScript code
254- `npm run watch` - Watch for changes and rebuild
255- `npm test` - Run the test suite
256- `npm run format` - Format code with Prettier
257- `npm run inspector` - Run the MCP Inspector against the server
258 
259### Running Tests
260 
261```bash
262npm test
263```
264 
265## Contributing
266 
267Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a pull request.
268 
269## Acknowledgments
270 
271- [Open Library API](https://openlibrary.org/developers/api)
272- [Model Context Protocol](https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/mcp)
273