Harvard University

Harvard Library LibraryCloud API (Open Metadata)

Open metadata hub aggregating Harvard bibliographic metadata (12.7M+ bib records, image records, ArchivesSpace finding aids) and returning normalized MODS or Dublin Core. The public Item API needs no key and is served from Harvard's own infrastructure (api.lib.harvard.edu -> api-prod.hz.lib.harvard.edu on AWS). Harvard publishes no machine-readable contract for it; a schema derived from a live response is stored under json-schema/. Note the defect recorded in errors/: a non-numeric limit parameter returns a Tomcat HTML 500 rather than a 400.

GitHub

Documentation

📖
Documentation
https://library.harvard.edu/services-tools/harvard-library-apis-datasets

Schemas & Data

📊
JSONSchema
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/harvard/refs/heads/main/json-schema/harvard-librarycloud-item.schema.json

Other Resources

🔗
GitHub
https://github.com/harvard-library/librarycloud
🔗
Examples
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/harvard/refs/heads/main/examples/harvard-librarycloud-item-response.json

API entry from apis.yml

apis.yml Raw ↑ 
aid: harvard:librarycloud
name: Harvard Library LibraryCloud API (Open Metadata)
x-operator: institution
description: 'Open metadata hub aggregating Harvard bibliographic metadata (12.7M+ bib records, image
  records, ArchivesSpace finding aids) and returning normalized MODS or Dublin Core. The public Item API
  needs no key and is served from Harvard''s own infrastructure (api.lib.harvard.edu -> api-prod.hz.lib.harvard.edu
  on AWS). Harvard publishes no machine-readable contract for it; a schema derived from a live response
  is stored under json-schema/. Note the defect recorded in errors/: a non-numeric limit parameter returns
  a Tomcat HTML 500 rather than a 400.'
humanURL: https://library.harvard.edu/services-tools/harvard-library-apis-datasets
baseURL: https://api.lib.harvard.edu/v2/items.json
tags:
- Libraries
- Open Metadata
- Bibliographic
- MODS
- Dublin Core
properties:
- type: Documentation
  url: https://library.harvard.edu/services-tools/harvard-library-apis-datasets
- type: GitHub
  url: https://github.com/harvard-library/librarycloud
- type: JSONSchema
  url: json-schema/harvard-librarycloud-item.schema.json
- type: Examples
  url: examples/harvard-librarycloud-item-response.json