OverDrive

OverDrive is a digital reading platform that distributes ebooks, audiobooks, and magazines to public libraries and schools worldwide, best known for its Libby and Sora reading apps. OverDrive publishes a set of REST APIs that let library systems, integrators, and partners work against a library's OverDrive collection: Discovery APIs (Library Account, Search, Metadata, and Library Availability), Circulation APIs (patron information, checkouts, and holds), Reporting APIs (checkouts report), and a Title Link API. Access is authorized with OAuth 2.0 client-credentials (client authentication) for discovery and patron authentication (including QR-code sign-in) for borrowing and holds, with a dedicated integration environment for testing against real titles before going live.

OverDrive publishes 3 APIs on the APIs.io network. Tagged areas include Company, Books, Libraries, Ebooks, and Audiobooks.

OverDrive’s developer surface includes documentation, API reference, getting-started guide, authentication, support, signup flow, and 13 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Source on GitHub

27.8/100 emerging ▬ flat Agent 28/100 agent aware Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-07-27 · rubric v0.5

AccessSelf serve

3 APIs 1 MCP Servers

CompanyBooksLibrariesEbooksAudiobooksDigital MediaPublishingEducationReadingCirculation

Kin Score

Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-07-27 · rubric v0.5

Composite quality — 27.8/100 · emerging

Contract Quality 0.0 / 25

Developer Ergonomics 11.7 / 20

Commercial Clarity 2.6 / 20

Operational Transparency 3.4 / 13

Governance 0.0 / 12

Discoverability 10.0 / 10

Agent readiness — 28/100 · agent aware

Machine-Readable Contract 0 / 18

Agentic Access Contract 0 / 15

MCP Server 12 / 12

Machine-Readable Auth 10 / 10

Idempotency 0 / 9

Stable Error Semantics 0 / 8

Request/Response Examples 0 / 7

Rate-Limit Signaling 0 / 7

Typed Event Surface 0 / 6

Agent Skills 0 / 5

Well-Known Catalog 4 / 4

Consent & Bot Identity 3 / 3

Improve this rating by publishing the missing artifacts — every area above can be raised, and the full rubric is at apis.io/rating/. This rating is computed from github.com/api-evangelist/overdrive: open an issue to ask a question, or submit a pull request to add artifacts. Want it done for you? Prioritized profiling — $2,500 →

APIs 3

Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.

MCP Servers 1

Model Context Protocol servers that expose these APIs to AI agents.

Get Started 3

Portal, sign-up, and the first successful call

DeveloperPortal

DeveloperPortal

GettingStarted

GettingStarted

SignUp

SignUp

Documentation 2

Reference material describing how the API behaves

Documentation

Documentation

APIReference

APIReference

Agent Surfaces 3

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

WellKnown

WellKnown

MCPServer

MCPServer

LLMsTxt

LLMsTxt

Design & Contract 3

Pagination, idempotency, versioning, errors, and events

Lifecycle

Lifecycle

Conventions

Conventions

Conformance

Conformance

Access & Security 5

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

Authentication

Authentication

SecurityTxt

SecurityTxt

DomainSecurity

DomainSecurity

VulnerabilityDisclosure

VulnerabilityDisclosure

Security

Security

Operate 2

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

Support

Support

StatusPage

StatusPage

Company 1

The organization behind the API

Website

Website

Source (apis.yml)

aid: overdrive
name: OverDrive
description: 'OverDrive is a digital reading platform that distributes ebooks, audiobooks, and magazines to public libraries
  and schools worldwide, best known for its Libby and Sora reading apps. OverDrive publishes a set of REST APIs that let library
  systems, integrators, and partners work against a library''s OverDrive collection: Discovery APIs (Library Account, Search,
  Metadata, and Library Availability), Circulation APIs (patron information, checkouts, and holds), Reporting APIs (checkouts
  report), and a Title Link API. Access is authorized with OAuth 2.0 client-credentials (client authentication) for discovery
  and patron authentication (including QR-code sign-in) for borrowing and holds, with a dedicated integration environment
  for testing against real titles before going live.'
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/overdrive/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
accessModel:
  pricing: unknown
  onboarding: self-serve
  trial: false
  try_now: false
  public: false
  label: Self-serve signup
  confidence: medium
  source:
  - authentication
  generated: '2026-07-22'
  method: derived
image: https://developer.overdrive.com/img/overdrive-logo.png
x-type: company
x-source: vc-portfolio
x-backed-by:
- insight-partners
x-tier: stub
x-tier-reason: portfolio-lead
specificationVersion: '0.20'
created: '2026-07-17'
modified: '2026-07-20'
tags:
- Company
- Books
- Libraries
- Ebooks
- Audiobooks
- Digital Media
- Publishing
- Education
- Reading
- Circulation
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com
- FN: APIs.json
  email: info@apis.io
apis:
- name: OverDrive Discovery API
  description: Discovery APIs to search and find information about titles in a library's OverDrive collection — Library Account,
    Search, Metadata, and Library Availability.
  humanURL: https://developer.overdrive.com/api-docs/discovery-apis
  baseURL: https://api.overdrive.com/v1
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://developer.overdrive.com/api-docs/discovery-apis
- name: OverDrive Circulation API
  description: Circulation APIs to authenticate patrons and manage checkouts and holds against a library's OverDrive collection.
  humanURL: https://developer.overdrive.com/api-docs/circulation-apis
  baseURL: https://patron.api.overdrive.com/v1
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://developer.overdrive.com/api-docs/circulation-apis
- name: OverDrive Reporting API
  description: Reporting API to see the titles that were borrowed from a specific collection during a specific time period
    (public libraries only).
  humanURL: https://developer.overdrive.com/api-docs/reporting-apis
  baseURL: https://api.overdrive.com/v1
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://developer.overdrive.com/api-docs/reporting-apis
common:
- type: Website
  url: http://www.overdrive.com/
- type: DeveloperPortal
  url: https://developer.overdrive.com/
- type: Documentation
  url: https://developer.overdrive.com/api-docs/authentication
- type: APIReference
  url: https://developer.overdrive.com/api-docs/discovery-apis
- type: GettingStarted
  url: https://developer.overdrive.com/getting-started/api-overview
- type: Authentication
  url: authentication/overdrive-authentication.yml
- type: Support
  url: https://developer.overdrive.com/support/contact-us
- type: SignUp
  url: https://developer.overdrive.com/request-access
- type: StatusPage
  url: https://status.overdrive.com/
- type: Lifecycle
  url: lifecycle/overdrive-lifecycle.yml
- type: Conventions
  url: conventions/overdrive-conventions.yml
- type: Conformance
  url: conformance/overdrive-conformance.yml
- type: WellKnown
  url: well-known/overdrive-well-known.yml
- type: SecurityTxt
  url: well-known/overdrive-security.txt
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/overdrive-domain-security.yml
- type: VulnerabilityDisclosure
  url: security/overdrive-vulnerability-disclosure.yml
- type: Security
  url: https://developer.overdrive.com/.well-known/security.txt
- type: MCPServer
  url: mcp/overdrive-mcp.yml
- type: LLMsTxt
  url: llms/overdrive-llms.txt
x-enrichment:
  date: '2026-07-20'
  status: enriched
  artifacts_added: 10
  pass: local-v1

OverDrive

Kin Score

APIs 3

OverDrive Discovery API

OverDrive Circulation API

OverDrive Reporting API

MCP Servers 1

overdrive-mcp.yml

Security Posture 3

Overdrive Authentication

Overdrive Domain Security

Overdrive Vulnerability Disclosure

Resources