# Leeds Digital Library (OAI-PMH and OpenSearch)

**Canonical:** https://apis.io/apis/university-of-leeds/digital-library/  
**Provider:** University of Leeds — https://apis.io/providers/university-of-leeds/  
**Base URL:** https://digital.library.leeds.ac.uk/cgi/oai2  
**Documentation:** https://digital.library.leeds.ac.uk/

Leeds Digital Library (OAI-PMH and OpenSearch) is one of 6 APIs that [University of Leeds](https://apis.io/providers/university-of-leeds/) publishes on the [APIs.io](https://apis.io/) network, described by a machine-readable OpenAPI specification. Tagged areas include Digital Collections, OAI-PMH, OpenSearch, EPrints, and Libraries. The published artifact set on APIs.io includes an OpenAPI specification, API documentation, and an API reference.

A second, separate institution-run EPrints deployment holding digitised Special Collections — Bronte, incunabula, the Liddle Collection, cookery, history of science, the Leeds Permanent Library. It exposes an OAI-PMH 2.0 endpoint (repositoryName "Digital Library", earliest datestamp 2012-09-04) and an OpenSearch 1.1 description document offering Atom and BibTeX result serialisations over /cgi/search/simple. Verified live 2026-08-30. Its /cgi/iiif/manifest/{id} endpoint is a soft-200 returning a zero-byte body and is excluded.

## Operations (3)

| Method | Path | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| GET | `/oai2` | Issue an OAI-PMH 2.0 request against the Digital Library |
| GET | `/opensearchdescription` | Retrieve the OpenSearch 1.1 description document |
| GET | `/search/simple` | Search the Digital Library and receive machine-readable results |

## Machine-readable artifacts (5)

- **OpenAPI** — https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/university-of-leeds/refs/heads/main/openapi/university-of-leeds-digital-library-openapi.yml
- **Documentation** — https://digital.library.leeds.ac.uk/
- **APIReference** — https://digital.library.leeds.ac.uk/cgi/opensearchdescription
- **Examples** — https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/university-of-leeds/refs/heads/main/examples/university-of-leeds-digital-library-oai-identify-example.xml
- **Errors** — https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/university-of-leeds/refs/heads/main/errors/university-of-leeds-errors.yml

## Other University of Leeds APIs (5)

- [Research Data Leeds Repository (OAI-PMH)](https://apis.io/apis/university-of-leeds/research-data-oai/)
- [Spacefinder Campus Space Data](https://apis.io/apis/university-of-leeds/spacefinder/)
- [Library Floor Plans IIIF Image API](https://apis.io/apis/university-of-leeds/library-floorplans-iiif/)
- [Library Search (Ex Libris Alma / Primo) — tenancy](https://apis.io/apis/university-of-leeds/library-discovery-primo/)
- [White Rose Research Online (OAI-PMH) — consortium tenancy](https://apis.io/apis/university-of-leeds/white-rose-research-online/)

## Tags

Digital Collections, OAI-PMH, OpenSearch, EPrints, Libraries, Cultural Heritage

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