Digital Public Library of America

Digital Public Library of America Authentication API

API key registration and management

Documentation GitHub OpenAPI

Operations 1

POST /api_key/{email} Request an API key #

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OpenAPI Specification

openapi: 3.2.0
info:
  title: Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) Authentication API
  description: The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) provides a free REST API that gives access to metadata for 50 million+ cultural heritage items aggregated from 4,000+ US libraries, archives, and museums. The API supports full-text search, field-specific queries, geographic and date range filtering, faceted browsing, and JSONP callbacks. All results are returned as JSON-LD. API keys are issued free of charge via a self-service email-based registration endpoint.
  version: '2'
  contact:
    name: DPLA Developer Portal
    url: https://pro.dp.la/developers
  license:
    name: MIT
    url: https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT
  termsOfService: https://dp.la/info/terms-conditions/
servers:
- url: https://api.dp.la/v2
  description: DPLA API v2 production server
security:
- ApiKeyQuery: []
- ApiKeyHeader: []
tags:
- name: Authentication
  description: API key registration and management
paths:
  /api_key/{email}:
    post:
      operationId: createApiKey
      summary: Request an API key
      description: Self-service API key registration. Submit your email address to receive a free DPLA API key via email. The key is 32 characters, alphanumeric with hyphens, and must be passed as the api_key query parameter or Authorization header on all subsequent requests.
      tags:
      - Authentication
      security: []
      parameters:
      - name: email
        in: path
        required: true
        description: Email address to receive the API key.
        schema:
          type: string
          format: email
        example: developer@example.com
      responses:
        '200':
          description: API key sent to the provided email address
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                type: object
                properties:
                  message:
                    type: string
                    example: Your API key has been sent to developer@example.com.
        '409':
          description: Conflict — the API key associated with this email is disabled
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/ErrorResponse'
        '500':
          description: Internal server error
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/ErrorResponse'
components:
  schemas:
    ErrorResponse:
      type: object
      description: Standard error response body.
      properties:
        error:
          type: string
          description: Machine-readable error code.
          example: invalid_api_key
        message:
          type: string
          description: Human-readable error description.
          example: Invalid or inactive API key.
        documentation:
          type: string
          format: uri
          description: Link to error documentation.
          example: https://pro.dp.la/developers/responses#errors
      required:
      - error
      - message
  securitySchemes:
    ApiKeyQuery:
      type: apiKey
      in: query
      name: api_key
      description: DPLA API key passed as a query parameter. Obtain a free key by sending a POST to /api_key/{email}.
    ApiKeyHeader:
      type: apiKey
      in: header
      name: Authorization
      description: DPLA API key passed as an Authorization header value (not Bearer scheme — just the raw 32-character key).