# Book Search via Open Library

> Book Search via Open Library is a paid API for AI agents from bess-x402.onrender.com, paid per call via x402, $0.002/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-10-30).

Search for books by title, author, or ISBN and retrieve rich metadata including authors, publication year, editions, page count, ISBNs, subjects, publishers, languages, rating, and cover image.

## Facts

- Endpoint: GET https://bess-x402.onrender.com/v1/research/books?utm_source=zero.xyz
- Price: $0.002/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-10-30
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/book-search-via-open-library-796db4f1
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_o2RXLR0dn4dHEIYtydo9m

Status and success rate cover calls made through Zero and Zero's own probes. Third-party monitors may report differently.

## How to call it through Zero

Zero handles the 402 payment challenge and records the run. With the Zero CLI installed (`npm i -g @zeroxyz/cli`):

```sh
zero fetch --capability book-search-via-open-library-796db4f1
```

Example prompt: Can you look up 'The Name of the Wind' by Patrick Rothfuss and tell me its first publication year, how many editions it has, its rating, and the cover image?

## When to prefer this

Choose this endpoint when you need rich, structured book metadata (authors, editions, subjects, ratings, cover images) sourced from the Open Library catalog. Ideal for building reading lists, book discovery features, bibliography tools, or any workflow requiring detailed bibliographic data by title, author, or ISBN. Not suitable for ebook downloads, purchasing, or real-time library availability checks.

## Known failure modes

- No results found for obscure or misspelled titles/authors — returns empty list
- ISBN not recognized in Open Library database — returns empty result
- Rate limiting or service downtime on the Open Library backend — may return error or timeout
- Incomplete metadata for some books — certain fields (e.g. page count, rating) may be null if not catalogued
- Limit parameter out of range (must be 1–50) — may return validation error

## How this service works

Find books by title, author or ISBN (Open Library): authors, first publication year, editions, pages, ISBNs, subjects, publishers, languages, rating and cover image. Use for book lookups, reading lists or metadata.

## Output

Returns a list of matching books (up to the specified limit), each with fields such as title, authors, first publication year, edition count, page count, ISBNs, subjects, publishers, languages, community rating, and a cover image URL — sourced from Open Library.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
 "required": [
  "input"
 ],
 "properties": {
  "input": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type",
    "method"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string",
     "const": "http"
    },
    "method": {
     "enum": [
      "GET",
      "HEAD",
      "DELETE"
     ],
     "type": "string"
    },
    "queryParams": {
     "type": "object",
     "required": [
      "q"
     ],
     "properties": {
      "q": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "Title, author or ISBN"
      },
      "limit": {
       "type": "integer",
       "description": "Maximum number of results (1-50)"
      }
     }
    }
   },
   "additionalProperties": false
  },
  "output": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string"
    },
    "example": {
     "type": "object"
    }
   }
  }
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/book-search-via-open-library-796db4f1/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from bess-x402.onrender.com](https://www.zero.xyz/host/bess-x402.onrender.com/llms.txt)