My second R package, openlibraryR, is now available on Github!
openlibraryR is a simple API wrapper for OpenLibrary.org, which aims to have a web page for every book ever published. Users can add to the catalogue, download or borrow books, or edit one of the 20 million+ current records.
Open Library is an initiative of the Internet Archive, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form.
The Open Library API provides one method for accessing book details by ISBN, which I've wrapped in a convenient R function openlibraryR::get_books() that returns a tidy tibble. Alternatively, you can download one of the monthly data dumps to access the entirety of their data in JSON format.
Getting Started
You can install the development version of openlibraryR from Github:
devtools::install_github("walkerkq/openlibraryR")No authentication is required, but there is a limit for the number of ISBNs you can pass in one call.
my_book <- openlibraryR::get_books(book_id = '0486282112')
The returned data includes features like the book title, authors, number of pages, IDs for various platforms including Goodreads, subjects, etc, in a nested tibble.
str(my_book)
#> tibble [1 x 20] (S3: tbl_df/tbl/data.frame)
#> $ url : chr "https://openlibrary.org/books/OL1110841M/Frankenstein"
#> $ key : chr "/books/OL1110841M"
#> $ title : chr "Frankenstein"
#> $ authors :List of 1
#> ..$ : tibble [1 x 2] (S3: tbl_df/tbl/data.frame)
#> .. ..$ url : chr "https://openlibrary.org/authors/OL25342A/Mary_Shelley"
#> .. ..$ name: chr "Mary Shelley"
#> $ number_of_pages: int 166
#> $ pagination : chr "x, 166 p. ;"
#> $ by_statement : chr "Mary Shelley"
#> $ identifiers :List of 1
#> ..$ : tibble [1 x 6] (S3: tbl_df/tbl/data.frame)
#> .. ..$ goodreads : chr "89476"
#> .. ..$ librarything: chr "8294"
#> .. ..$ isbn_10 : chr "0486282112"
#> .. ..$ lccn : chr "94036624"
#> .. ..$ oclc : chr "31166513"
#> .. ..$ openlibrary : chr "OL1110841M"
#> $ classifications:List of 1
#> ..$ : tibble [1 x 2] (S3: tbl_df/tbl/data.frame)
#> .. ..$ lc_classifications : chr "PR5397 .F7 1994b"
#> .. ..$ dewey_decimal_class: chr "823/.7"
#> $ publishers :List of 1
#> ..$ : tibble [1 x 1] (S3: tbl_df/tbl/data.frame)
#> .. ..$ name: chr "Dover Publications"
#> $ publish_places :List of 1
#> ..$ : tibble [1 x 1] (S3: tbl_df/tbl/data.frame)
#> .. ..$ name: chr "New York"
#> $ publish_date : chr "1994"
#> $ subjects :List of 1
#> ..$ : tibble [70 x 2] (S3: tbl_df/tbl/data.frame)
#> .. ..$ name: chr [1:70] "Mary Shelley" "Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley" "Women authors" "Rhetoric" ...
#> .. ..$ url : chr [1:70] "https://openlibrary.org/subjects/mary_shelley" "https://openlibrary.org/subjects/mary_wollstonecraft_shelley" "https://openlibrary.org/subjects/women_authors" "https://openlibrary.org/subjects/rhetoric" ...
#> $ subject_places :List of 1
#> ..$ : tibble [2 x 2] (S3: tbl_df/tbl/data.frame)
#> .. ..$ name: chr [1:2] "Geneva (Switzerland)" "England"
#> .. ..$ url : chr [1:2] "https://openlibrary.org/subjects/place:geneva_(switzerland)" "https://openlibrary.org/subjects/place:england"
#> $ subject_people :List of 1
#> ..$ : tibble [3 x 2] (S3: tbl_df/tbl/data.frame)
#> .. ..$ name: chr [1:3] "Frankenstein (Fictitious character)" "Frankenstein's monster (Fictitious character)" "Victor Frankenstein (Fictitious character)"
#> .. ..$ url : chr [1:3] "https://openlibrary.org/subjects/person:frankenstein_(fictitious_character)" "https://openlibrary.org/subjects/person:frankenstein's_monster_(fictitious_character)" "https://openlibrary.org/subjects/person:victor_frankenstein_(fictitious_character)"
#> $ subject_times :List of 1
#> ..$ : tibble [1 x 2] (S3: tbl_df/tbl/data.frame)
#> .. ..$ name: chr "19th century"
#> .. ..$ url : chr "https://openlibrary.org/subjects/time:19th_century"
#> $ notes : chr "Previously published: 3rd ed. London : Colburn and Bentley, 1831, in series: Standard novels."
#> $ links :List of 1
#> ..$ : tibble [3 x 2] (S3: tbl_df/tbl/data.frame)
#> .. ..$ title: chr [1:3] "Wikipedia" "Wikidata" "VIAF ID: 185508590"
#> .. ..$ url : chr [1:3] "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein" "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q150827" "https://viaf.org/viaf/185508590"
#> $ ebooks :List of 1
#> ..$ : tibble [1 x 4] (S3: tbl_df/tbl/data.frame)
#> .. ..$ preview_url : chr "https://archive.org/details/frankenstein00shel"
#> .. ..$ availability: chr "borrow"
#> .. ..$ borrow_url : chr "https://openlibrary.org/books/OL1110841M/Frankenstein/borrow"
#> .. ..$ checkedout : logi FALSE
#> $ cover :List of 1
#> ..$ : tibble [1 x 3] (S3: tbl_df/tbl/data.frame)
#> .. ..$ small : chr "https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/311591-S.jpg"
#> .. ..$ medium: chr "https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/311591-M.jpg"
#> .. ..$ large : chr "https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/311591-L.jpg"Data Exploration
Use tidyr::unnest() to access the various nested data.
library(dplyr)
my_book %>%
select(authors) %>%
tidyr::unnest(authors,
names_sep = '_')
#> # A tibble: 1 x 2
#> authors_url authors_name
#> <chr> <chr>
#> 1 https://openlibrary.org/authors/OL25342A/Mary_Shelley Mary Shelley
my_book %>%
select(identifiers) %>%
tidyr::unnest(identifiers)
#> # A tibble: 1 x 6
#> goodreads librarything isbn_10 lccn oclc openlibrary
#> <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr>
#> 1 89476 8294 0486282112 94036624 31166513 OL1110841M
my_book %>%
select(subject_people) %>%
tidyr::unnest(subject_people,
names_sep = '_')
#> # A tibble: 3 x 2
#> subject_people_name subject_people_url
#> <chr> <chr>
#> 1 Frankenstein (Fictitious chara~ https://openlibrary.org/subjects/person:frank~
#> 2 Frankenstein's monster (Fictit~ https://openlibrary.org/subjects/person:frank~
#> 3 Victor Frankenstein (Fictitiou~ https://openlibrary.org/subjects/person:victo~Have fun!