Library of Congress

aid: loc
name: Library of Congress
description: The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world and the research arm of the US Congress. It provides
  REST APIs for accessing digitized collections, Congress.gov legislative data, bibliographic records, historic newspapers
  via Chronicling America, maps, photographs, manuscripts, and historical government documents. The loc.gov JSON API requires
  no authentication, while the Congress.gov API requires a free API key.
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/apis-json-logo.jpg
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/loc/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
created: '2026-06-13'
modified: '2026-06-13'
specificationVersion: '0.19'
type: Index
tags:
- Library
- Government
- Congress
- Legislative Data
- Digital Collections
- Newspapers
- Maps
- Bibliographic Records
- Historical Documents
apis:
- name: loc.gov JSON API
  description: The loc.gov JSON/YAML API provides structured, machine-readable data about Library of Congress digital collections
    — books, photographs, maps, manuscripts, archived websites, videos, and more. No authentication is required. Responses
    are available in JSON or YAML format via the fo= query parameter.
  image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/apis-json-logo.jpg
  humanURL: https://www.loc.gov/apis/json-and-yaml/
  baseURL: https://www.loc.gov
  tags:
  - Collections
  - Digital Library
  - JSON
  - YAML
  - Search
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.loc.gov/apis/json-and-yaml/
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/loc-loc-gov-json-api-openapi.yml
  contact:
  - FN: Library of Congress
    url: https://www.loc.gov/about/contact-us/
- name: Congress.gov API
  description: The Congress.gov API (v3) provides machine-readable access to legislative data from Congress.gov, including
    bills, amendments, summaries, members, committees, nominations, treaties, and the Congressional Record. Responses are
    available in JSON or XML. A free API key is required (sign up at api.congress.gov). Rate limit is 5,000 requests per hour.
  image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/apis-json-logo.jpg
  humanURL: https://api.congress.gov/
  baseURL: https://api.congress.gov/v3
  tags:
  - Congress
  - Legislative Data
  - Bills
  - Amendments
  - Members
  - Committees
  - Nominations
  - Treaties
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://api.congress.gov/
  - type: GitHubRepository
    url: https://github.com/LibraryOfCongress/api.congress.gov
  - type: Signup
    url: https://api.congress.gov/sign-up/
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/loc-congress-gov-openapi.yml
  contact:
  - FN: Library of Congress
    url: https://www.loc.gov/about/contact-us/
- name: Chronicling America API
  description: The Chronicling America API provides access to the historic American newspapers collection digitized by the
    Library of Congress and its partners. Endpoints allow searching and retrieving pages, titles, batches, and OCR text. No
    authentication is required.
  image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/apis-json-logo.jpg
  humanURL: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/about/api/
  baseURL: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov
  tags:
  - Newspapers
  - Historical
  - Digitized
  - Search
  - OCR
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/about/api/
  contact:
  - FN: Library of Congress
    url: https://www.loc.gov/about/contact-us/
common:
- type: Website
  url: https://www.loc.gov
- type: Documentation
  url: https://www.loc.gov/apis/
- type: GitHubOrg
  url: https://github.com/LibraryOfCongress
- type: LinkedIn
  url: https://www.linkedin.com/company/library-of-congress
- type: Blog
  url: https://blogs.loc.gov/thesignal/
- type: Pricing
  url: https://www.loc.gov/apis/
- type: StatusPage
  url: https://uptime.com/upstatus/loc.gov
- type: X
  url: https://twitter.com/librarycongress
- type: Plans
  url: plans/loc-plans-pricing.yml
- type: RateLimits
  url: rate-limits/loc-rate-limits.yml
- type: FinOps
  url: finops/loc-finops.yml
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com