# UBC Library Open Collections API

**Canonical:** https://apis.io/apis/ubc/open-collections/  
**Provider:** University of British Columbia — https://apis.io/providers/ubc/  
**Base URL:** https://oc-index.library.ubc.ca  
**Documentation:** https://open.library.ubc.ca/docs

UBC Library Open Collections API is one of 7 APIs that [University of British Columbia](https://apis.io/providers/ubc/) publishes on the [APIs.io](https://apis.io/) network, described by a machine-readable OpenAPI specification. Tagged areas include Library, Digital Collections, Search, Open Data, and Elasticsearch. The published artifact set on APIs.io includes an OpenAPI specification, API documentation, an API reference, authentication docs, and rate-limit docs.

Public REST/JSON API over UBC Library's Open Collections — the university's digitized historical, archival and research holdings. Operated by UBC Library on UBC's own infrastructure; the search resource is backed by an ElasticSearch index and versioned by the query syntax it accepts. Reads need no credential at 10 requests per minute per IP; an email-registered key raises that to 200. Verified live 2026-08-19: /collections returned 362 collections and /search/8.5?q=salmon returned real hits. CORRECTION: the previously catalogued endpoint /search/8.5/ (trailing slash) does not route — it answers HTTP 200 with "Missed Route" and was a soft-404 credited as a working API.

## Machine-readable artifacts (11)

- **OpenAPI** — https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/ubc/refs/heads/main/openapi/ubc-open-collections-api-openapi.yml
- **Documentation** — https://open.library.ubc.ca/docs
- **APIReference** — https://github.com/ubc-library/docs-open-collections-api
- **Examples** — https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/ubc/refs/heads/main/examples/ubc-open-collections-collection-example.json
- **Examples** — https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/ubc/refs/heads/main/examples/ubc-open-collections-items-example.json
- **Examples** — https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/ubc/refs/heads/main/examples/ubc-open-collections-search-example.json
- **Authentication** — https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/ubc/refs/heads/main/authentication/ubc-authentication.yml
- **RateLimits** — https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/ubc/refs/heads/main/rate-limits/ubc-rate-limits.yml
- **Errors** — https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/ubc/refs/heads/main/errors/ubc-errors.yml
- **Lifecycle** — https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/ubc/refs/heads/main/lifecycle/ubc-lifecycle.yml
- **APIsJSON** — https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/ubc/refs/heads/main/apis.yml

## Other University of British Columbia APIs (6)

- [UBC Library Open Collections IIIF Presentation API](https://apis.io/apis/ubc/open-collections-iiif/)
- [UBC Library Abacus Dataverse API](https://apis.io/apis/ubc/abacus-dataverse/)
- [Abacus OAI-PMH Metadata Harvesting Endpoint](https://apis.io/apis/ubc/abacus-oai-pmh/)
- [UBC Shibboleth Identity Provider Metadata](https://apis.io/apis/ubc/shibboleth-idp/)
- [UBC Integration Enablement Centre API Gateway](https://apis.io/apis/ubc/iec-api-gateway/)
- [UBC IT Service Status API](https://apis.io/apis/ubc/it-status/)

## Tags

Library, Digital Collections, Search, Open Data, Elasticsearch

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Profiled by [API Evangelist](https://apievangelist.com) and published on [APIs.io](https://apis.io/apis/ubc/open-collections/). The API's provider profile, Kin Score and agent-readiness rating are at https://apis.io/providers/ubc/.