University of Leeds

University of Leeds Open Search API

OpenSearch 1.1 description and search result feeds.

Documentation GitHub OpenAPI

Operations 2

GET /opensearchdescription Retrieve the OpenSearch 1.1 description document #

GET /search/simple Search the Digital Library and receive machine-readable results #

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OpenAPI Specification

openapi: 3.2.0
info:
  title: Leeds Digital Library — OAI-PMH Open Search API
  version: '2.0'
  summary: Metadata harvesting and search interfaces for the University of Leeds Digital Library.
  description: 'The Leeds Digital Library (digital.library.leeds.ac.uk, 129.11.78.169 — University of Leeds address space) is a second, separate EPrints deployment holding digitised Special Collections material: Bronte, incunabula, Liddle Collection, cookery, history of science, the Leeds Permanent Library and others.'
  contact:
    name: University of Leeds Libraries — Digital Library
    email: j.beaman@leeds.ac.uk
    url: https://digital.library.leeds.ac.uk/
  x-operator: institution
  x-operator-evidence: Host digital.library.leeds.ac.uk is under leeds.ac.uk and resolves to 129.11.78.169, University of Leeds address space. OAI adminEmail and OpenSearch Contact are both @leeds.ac.uk. Self-hosted EPrints, not a vendor tenancy.
  x-provenance:
    generated: '2026-08-30'
    method: derived
    source: Derived from live responses probed 2026-08-30 — https://digital.library.leeds.ac.uk/cgi/oai2?verb=Identify (HTTP 200) and https://digital.library.leeds.ac.uk/cgi/opensearchdescription (HTTP 200, OpenSearch 1.1). Soft-200 on /cgi/iiif/manifest/{id} confirmed across six identifiers and excluded.
servers:
- url: https://digital.library.leeds.ac.uk/cgi
  description: Production (institution-operated EPrints)
security: []
tags:
- name: Open Search
  description: OpenSearch 1.1 description and search result feeds.
paths:
  /opensearchdescription:
    get:
      operationId: getOpenSearchDescription
      summary: Retrieve the OpenSearch 1.1 description document
      description: Returns an OpenSearchDescription naming the search URL templates the repository supports — Atom (application/atom+xml) and BibTeX (text/plain) over /cgi/search/simple.
      tags:
      - Open Search
      security: []
      responses:
        '200':
          description: OpenSearch 1.1 description document.
          content:
            application/opensearchdescription+xml:
              schema:
                type: string
                contentMediaType: application/xml
  /search/simple:
    get:
      operationId: simpleSearch
      summary: Search the Digital Library and receive machine-readable results
      description: Search endpoint named by the OpenSearch description. `output=Atom` returns a syndication feed; `output=BibTeX` returns citations as text.
      tags:
      - Open Search
      security: []
      parameters:
      - name: q
        in: query
        required: true
        schema:
          type: string
      - name: search_offset
        in: query
        required: false
        schema:
          type: integer
          default: 0
      - name: output
        in: query
        required: false
        schema:
          type: string
          enum:
          - Atom
          - BibTeX
          - RSS2
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Search results in the requested serialisation.
          content:
            application/atom+xml:
              schema:
                type: string
                contentMediaType: application/atom+xml
            text/plain:
              schema:
                type: string

University of Leeds Open Search API

Operations 2

Documentation

Specifications

Schemas & Data

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