MCP Open Library

What is MCP Open Library about?

MCP Open Library enables AI assistants to query the Open Library database for book titles, author names, detailed author profiles, and cover images. It exposes a set of MCP‑compatible tools that return structured JSON or URLs, making literary data readily consumable by downstream AI workflows.

How to use MCP Open Library?

• Installation via Smithery (recommended)

  npx -y @smithery/cli install @8enSmith/mcp-open-library --client claude
  

• Manual installation

  git clone https://github.com/8enSmith/mcp-open-library.git
  cd mcp-open-library
  npm install
  npm run build
  

• Run locally

  npm run inspector            # starts the MCP inspector for testing
  

• Docker

  docker build -t mcp-open-library .
  docker run -p 8080:8080 mcp-open-library
  

• Calling the tools – use any MCP‑compatible client (e.g., Claude Desktop) and invoke the exposed methods such as get_book_by_title, get_authors_by_name, get_author_info, get_author_photo, get_book_cover, and get_book_by_id. Example payloads are provided in the README.

Key Features

• Search books by title (get_book_by_title).
• Search authors by name (get_authors_by_name).
• Retrieve full author records via Open Library key (get_author_info).
• Obtain author photo URLs using OLID (get_author_photo).
• Generate cover image URLs for books with various identifiers (get_book_cover).
• Fetch complete book metadata by ISBN, LCCN, OCLC, or OLID (get_book_by_id).
• Ready‑to‑use MCP inspector for rapid testing.
• Docker support for isolated deployment.

Use Cases

• Enriching AI‑generated literature recommendations with accurate author bios and cover art.
• Building conversational assistants that can answer user queries about books, publication dates, and author details.
• Integrating Open Library data into knowledge‑base pipelines or chat‑bot back‑ends.
• Automated content creation tools that need verified bibliographic metadata.
• Educational platforms that provide students with quick access to book information.

FAQ

Q: Do I need an API key to use the server? A: No, the Open Library API is public and does not require authentication.

Q: Which identifiers are supported for get_book_cover and get_book_by_id? A: ISBN, OCLC, LCCN, OLID, and generic ID (for covers only).

Q: How do I test the server after starting it? A: Run npm run inspector and use the web UI to invoke any tool with sample payloads.

Q: Can I run the server on a different port? A: Yes, set the PORT environment variable before starting the server.

Q: Is the project compatible with other MCP clients besides Claude Desktop? A: Absolutely – any client that implements the Model Context Protocol can consume these tools.

MCP Open Library

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for the Open Library API that enables AI assistants to search for book and author information.

Overview

This project implements an MCP server that provides tools for AI assistants to interact with the Open Library. It allows searching for book information by title, searching for authors by name, retrieving detailed author information using their Open Library key, and getting URLs for author photos using their Open Library ID (OLID). The server returns structured data for book and author information.

Features

• Book Search by Title: Search for books using their title (get_book_by_title).
• Author Search by Name: Search for authors using their name (get_authors_by_name).
• Get Author Details: Retrieve detailed information for a specific author using their Open Library key (get_author_info).
• Get Author Photo: Get the URL for an author's photo using their Open Library ID (OLID) (get_author_photo).
• Get Book Cover: Get the URL for a book's cover image using various identifiers (ISBN, OCLC, LCCN, OLID, ID) (get_book_cover).
• Get Book by ID: Retrieve detailed book information using various identifiers (ISBN, LCCN, OCLC, OLID) (get_book_by_id).

Installation

Installing via Smithery

To install MCP Open Library for Claude Desktop automatically via Smithery:

npx -y @smithery/cli install @8enSmith/mcp-open-library --client claude

Manual Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/your-username/mcp-open-library.git
cd mcp-open-library

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build the project
npm run build

Usage

Running the Server

You can use the MCP Inspector to test the server:

npm run inspector

Access the MCP Inspector and then test the tool e.g.

Using with an MCP Client

This server implements the Model Context Protocol, which means it can be used by any MCP-compatible AI assistant or client e.g. Claude Desktop. The server exposes the following tools:

• get_book_by_title: Search for book information by title
• get_authors_by_name: Search for author information by name
• get_author_info: Get detailed information for a specific author using their Open Library Author Key
• get_author_photo: Get the URL for an author's photo using their Open Library Author ID (OLID)
• get_book_cover: Get the URL for a book's cover image using a specific identifier (ISBN, OCLC, LCCN, OLID, or ID)
• get_book_by_id: Get detailed book information using a specific identifier (ISBN, LCCN, OCLC, or OLID)

Example get_book_by_title input:

{
  "title": "The Hobbit"
}

Example get_book_by_title output:

[
  {
    "title": "The Hobbit",
    "authors": [
      "J. R. R. Tolkien"
    ],
    "first_publish_year": 1937,
    "open_library_work_key": "/works/OL45883W",
    "edition_count": 120,
    "cover_url": "https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/10581294-M.jpg"
  }
]

Example get_authors_by_name input:

{
  "name": "J.R.R. Tolkien"
}

Example get_authors_by_name output:

[
  {
    "key": "OL26320A",
    "name": "J. R. R. Tolkien",
    "alternate_names": [
      "John Ronald Reuel Tolkien"
    ],
    "birth_date": "3 January 1892",
    "top_work": "The Hobbit",
    "work_count": 648
  }
]

Example get_author_info input:

{
  "author_key": "OL26320A"
}

Example get_author_info output:

{
  "name": "J. R. R. Tolkien",
  "personal_name": "John Ronald Reuel Tolkien",
  "birth_date": "3 January 1892",
  "death_date": "2 September 1973",
  "bio": "John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892-1973) was a major scholar of the English language, specializing in Old and Middle English. He served as the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon and later the Merton Professor of English Language and Literature at Oxford University.",
  "alternate_names": ["John Ronald Reuel Tolkien"],
  "photos": [6791763],
  "key": "/authors/OL26320A",
  "remote_ids": {
    "viaf": "95218067",
    "wikidata": "Q892"
  },
  "revision": 43,
  "last_modified": {
    "type": "/type/datetime",
    "value": "2023-02-12T05:50:22.881"
  }
}

Example get_author_photo input:

{
  "olid": "OL26320A"
}

Example get_author_photo output:

https://covers.openlibrary.org/a/olid/OL26320A-L.jpg

Example get_book_cover input:

{
  "key": "ISBN",
  "value": "9780547928227",
  "size": "L"
}

Example get_book_cover output:

https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9780547928227-L.jpg

The get_book_cover tool accepts the following parameters:

• key: The type of identifier (one of: ISBN, OCLC, LCCN, OLID, or ID)
• value: The value of the identifier
• size: Optional cover size (S for small, M for medium, L for large, defaults to L)

Example get_book_by_id input:

{
  "idType": "isbn",
  "idValue": "9780547928227"
}

Example get_book_by_id output:

{
  "title": "The Hobbit",
  "authors": [
    "J. R. R. Tolkien"
  ],
  "publishers": [
    "Houghton Mifflin Harcourt"
  ],
  "publish_date": "October 21, 2012",
  "number_of_pages": 300,
  "isbn_13": [
    "9780547928227"
  ],
  "isbn_10": [
    "054792822X"
  ],
  "oclc": [
    "794607877"
  ],
  "olid": [
    "OL25380781M"
  ],
  "open_library_edition_key": "/books/OL25380781M",
  "open_library_work_key": "/works/OL45883W",
  "cover_url": "https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/8231496-M.jpg",
  "info_url": "https://openlibrary.org/books/OL25380781M/The_Hobbit",
  "preview_url": "https://archive.org/details/hobbit00tolkien"
}

The get_book_by_id tool accepts the following parameters:

• idType: The type of identifier (one of: isbn, lccn, oclc, olid)
• idValue: The value of the identifier

An example of this tool being used in Claude Desktop can be see here:

Docker

You can test this MCP server using Docker. To do this first run:

docker build -t mcp-open-library .
docker run -p 8080:8080 mcp-open-library

You can then test the server running within Docker via the inspector e.g.

npm run inspector http://localhost:8080

Development

Project Structure

• src/index.ts - Main server implementation
• src/types.ts - TypeScript type definitions
• src/index.test.ts - Test suite

Available Scripts

• npm run build - Build the TypeScript code
• npm run watch - Watch for changes and rebuild
• npm test - Run the test suite
• npm run format - Format code with Prettier
• npm run inspector - Run the MCP Inspector against the server

Running Tests

npm test

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a pull request.

Acknowledgments

• Open Library API
• Model Context Protocol