search_booksLABSCO SUMMARY
The right source for bibliographic facts, because a model's memory of ISBNs and publication years is unreliable.
Asked about a book, a model will produce a plausible edition, year and author that are subtly wrong — and there is no way to tell from the answer. Open Library is an actual catalogue, openly licensed and free to query, so the check costs nothing. Worth connecting for anything where a citation has to be right rather than approximately right.
What it is
A reader for Open Library, the Internet Archive's open bibliographic database, giving an assistant book and author lookup.
What you get
Search across Open Library's book and author records.
Requirements
Node. MIT licensed. Open Library's API is public, so there is no key to obtain.
Setup effort
One command — npx -y mcp-open-library
USE CASES
01
Checking a citation
The real catalogue record, not the model's recollection.
02
Finding an author's work
Author records with what they published.
7 tools
Listed in project docs. Your client may show a different list.
get_book_by_titleget_authors_by_nameget_author_infoget_author_photoget_book_coverget_book_by_idBEFORE YOU INSTALL
What to know first
Tools you get
7 tools named in the project's documentation.
Requires
npx on PATH
INSTALLATION
Connect your client
Server setup
TERMINAL
npx -y mcp-open-libraryMCP Clients
Claude Desktop
CLAUDE DESKTOP · JSON
{
"mcpServers": {
"mcp-open-library": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"mcp-open-library"
]
}
}
}Smithery
SMITHERY · TERMINAL
npx -y @smithery/cli install @8enSmith/mcp-open-library --client claude
