Vanderbilt University

Vanderbilt University SPARQL API

SPARQL 1.1 query operations.

GitHub OpenAPI

Operations 2

GET /sparql Execute a SPARQL query via URL-encoded GET #
POST /sparql Execute a SPARQL query via direct POST #

Documentation

📖
Documentation
https://blog.tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/welcome/access-information/

Specifications

⚙
OpenAPI
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/vanderbilt/refs/heads/main/openapi/vanderbilt-sparql-api-openapi.yml

Schemas & Data

📊
JSONSchema
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/vanderbilt/refs/heads/main/json-schema/vanderbilt-television-news-archive-schema.json

Other Resources

🔗
Website
https://tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/
🔗
Vocabulary
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/vanderbilt/refs/heads/main/vocabulary/vanderbilt-linked-data-vocabulary.yml
🔗
SourceCode
https://github.com/HeardLibrary/linked-data

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OpenAPI Specification

vanderbilt-sparql-api-openapi.yml Raw ↑ 
openapi: 3.2.0
info:
  title: Vanderbilt Libraries Endpoint SPARQL API
  version: '1.1'
  description: Public SPARQL 1.1 Protocol endpoint operated by the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries at Vanderbilt University, serving the linked-data holdings produced by the Libraries' Linked Data, Wikidata and Semantic Web working groups.
  contact:
    name: Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries, Digital Scholarship
    url: https://www.library.vanderbilt.edu/
  externalDocs:
    description: SPARQL 1.1 Protocol (W3C Recommendation)
    url: https://www.w3.org/TR/sparql11-protocol/
servers:
- url: https://sparql.vanderbilt.edu
  description: Production endpoint on Vanderbilt's own registrable domain.
tags:
- name: Sparql
  description: SPARQL 1.1 query operations.
paths:
  /sparql:
    get:
      tags:
      - Sparql
      operationId: querySparqlViaGet
      summary: Execute a SPARQL query via URL-encoded GET
      description: SPARQL 1.1 Protocol "query via GET" binding.
      parameters:
      - name: query
        in: query
        required: true
        description: A SPARQL 1.1 query string.
        schema:
          type: string
      - name: default-graph-uri
        in: query
        required: false
        schema:
          type: array
          items:
            type: string
            format: uri
      - name: named-graph-uri
        in: query
        required: false
        schema:
          type: array
          items:
            type: string
            format: uri
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Query results.
          content:
            application/sparql-results+json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/SparqlResults'
            application/sparql-results+xml:
              schema:
                type: string
        '400':
          description: Missing or malformed query.
    post:
      tags:
      - Sparql
      operationId: querySparqlViaPost
      summary: Execute a SPARQL query via direct POST
      description: SPARQL 1.1 Protocol "query via POST directly" binding, observed returning 200 for a request body of media type application/sparql-query.
      requestBody:
        required: true
        content:
          application/sparql-query:
            schema:
              type: string
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Query results.
          content:
            application/sparql-results+json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/SparqlResults'
components:
  schemas:
    SparqlResults:
      type: object
      description: SPARQL 1.1 Query Results JSON Format.
      properties:
        head:
          type: object
          properties:
            vars:
              type: array
              items:
                type: string
        results:
          type: object
          properties:
            bindings:
              type: array
              items:
                type: object
                additionalProperties:
                  $ref: '#/components/schemas/RdfTerm'
    RdfTerm:
      type: object
      properties:
        type:
          type: string
          enum:
          - uri
          - literal
          - bnode
        value:
          type: string
        datatype:
          type: string
          format: uri
        xml:lang:
          type: string
x-provenance:
  generated: '2026-09-01'
  method: derived
  source: Derived from live unauthenticated probes of https://sparql.vanderbilt.edu/sparql on 2026-09-01 (GET with url-encoded query -> 200 application/sparql-results+json; POST with application/sparql-query -> 200; SELECT DISTINCT ?g over GRAPH -> named-graph inventory; SELECT (COUNT(*)) -> 14,366,116). Vanderbilt publishes no OpenAPI for the endpoint.
  x-operator: institution