British National Bibliography API
Overview
The British National Bibliography API exposes Linked Data about books published in the UK and Ireland, including titles, authors, ISBNs, and subject classifications. Use it to build library tools or enrich book metadata.
Beginner Tip
This is a Linked Data API — add the header 'Accept: application/json' to get JSON-LD instead of RDF/XML. Query by BNB record ID in the URL path, or use the SPARQL endpoint at bnb.data.bl.uk/sparql to search by ISBN or title.
Available Data
Example Response
{
"title": "The Great Gatsby",
"authors": [
"F. Scott Fitzgerald"
],
"publishedDate": "1925-04-10",
"pageCount": 218,
"categories": [
"Fiction"
],
"imageLinks": {
"thumbnail": "https://books.google.com/..."
},
"averageRating": 4
} Field Reference
@id Linked Data URI uniquely identifying this bibliographic resource title Full title of the book or resource creator Author or authors of the work; may be a URI or a literal name string isbn ISBN-10 or ISBN-13 identifier for the publication publisher Name of the publishing company date Publication year or full date in ISO 8601 format Implementation Example
const url = "http://bnb.data.bl.uk/";
const response = await fetch(url);
if (!response.ok) throw new Error(`Request failed: ${response.status}`);
const data = await response.json();
console.log(data); What Can You Build?
Note: These code examples are AI-generated and unverified. Always refer to the official API documentation for accurate usage.
Common Errors & Troubleshooting
Matrix Score Breakdown
Fully tested on Apr 5, 2026
Technical Specifications
Related Tags
Similar APIs
View All →Bhagavad Gita telugu
⭐ Beginner's PickBhagavad Gita Telugu API delivers all Gita verses in Telugu and Odia languages with no authentication required.
Bible-api
⭐ Beginner's PickBible-api.com is a free, no-auth REST API that returns Bible verses and passages in multiple translations using a simple URL pattern.
Crossref Metadata Search
⭐ Beginner's PickCrossref Metadata Search provides free REST access to bibliographic metadata for over 140 million scholarly articles, books, and conference papers indexed by DOI.
GurbaniNow
GurbaniNow provides programmatic access to fast and accurate gurbani restful api via REST API.
Gutendex
⭐ Beginner's PickGutendex exposes the full Project Gutenberg catalogue—over 70,000 free ebooks—as a clean JSON API.