# Book Data Scraper: ISBN & Title Lookup (`scrapemint/book-data-scraper`) Actor

Look up books in bulk by ISBN or by title and author. For each book: title, author, first publish year, pages, publisher, subjects, languages, reader rating and cover image URL. Perfect for book sellers, store listings and reading apps. No API key needed.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/scrapemint/book-data-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Ken M](https://apify.com/scrapemint) (community)
- **Categories:** E-commerce, Business
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$2.00 / 1,000 book founds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Book Data Scraper: ISBN & Title Lookup

Look up books in bulk. Paste a list of **ISBNs** (from a barcode scanner, an inventory export, a spreadsheet) or **title and author searches**, and get one clean row per book: title, authors, first publish year, page count, publisher, subjects, languages, reader rating and a cover image URL.

Built for **used book sellers, online bookshops, libraries and reading app builders**. Scanned a box of books? Turn the ISBN list into ready-to-publish listing data — title, author, pages, cover — in one run, with no signup and no API key.

### What you get for each book

- **title** and **authors**
- **firstPublishYear**, **pages**, **publishers**, **editionCount**
- **subjects** and **languages**: for categorising your catalogue
- **rating** and **ratingsCount**: reader ratings out of 5
- **coverUrl**: a large cover image, ready for your listing or app
- **openLibraryUrl**: the book's page for reference

### Example output

```json
{
  "input": "9780140328721",
  "mode": "isbn",
  "found": true,
  "title": "Fantastic Mr Fox",
  "authors": ["Roald Dahl"],
  "firstPublishYear": 1970,
  "pages": 96,
  "publishers": ["Puffin"],
  "subjects": ["Foxes", "Fiction", "Juvenile fiction"],
  "rating": 4.16,
  "editionCount": 94,
  "coverUrl": "https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/6498519-L.jpg"
}
```

### ISBNs or searches?

- **ISBNs**: exact, one row per number. ISBN-10 and ISBN-13 both work, dashes and spaces are fine.
- **Searches**: free text like "atomic habits" or "things fall apart achebe". Set how many best matches you want per search (default 1).

### Pricing

**$0.002 per book found.** ISBNs and searches that match nothing are **free**, and the first 2 rows of every run are free. Enriching a 1,000 book inventory costs about $2, versus the monthly subscriptions of book seller tools.

### How to run it via API

```bash
curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/scrapemint~book-data-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"isbns": ["9780140328721", "9780062316097"], "queries": ["atomic habits"]}'
```

### Frequently asked questions

**Where does the data come from?** Open Library, the Internet Archive's open catalogue of more than 40 million records. It is the same public dataset behind many library and book apps.

**Does it include prices or sales ranks?** No. Marketplace prices and ranks live behind retailer sites that block automated access; this tool covers the catalogue data (title, author, pages, cover) that listings need.

**An ISBN I scanned was not found.** Very new, very local or print-on-demand ISBNs are sometimes missing from the catalogue. Those rows are free and marked `found: false` so you can handle them separately.

**Can I use the cover images?** The cover URLs point to Open Library's public cover service, fine for catalogue and listing use.

### More tools from Scrapemint

- [Wikipedia Article Data](https://apify.com/scrapemint/wikipedia-article-data): facts and summaries for any topic in bulk.
- [Website Content Scraper](https://apify.com/scrapemint/website-content-scraper): clean text from any web page.
- [Shopify Store Products Scraper](https://apify.com/scrapemint/shopify-store-products-scraper): product data from any Shopify store.

# Actor input Schema

## `isbns` (type: `array`):

ISBN-10 or ISBN-13, one per line. Dashes and spaces are fine. Each ISBN returns exactly the matching book.

## `queries` (type: `array`):

Free text searches like a book title, an author, or both ("things fall apart achebe"). Each search returns the best matches.

## `maxResultsPerQuery` (type: `integer`):

How many best matches to return for each title or author search. ISBNs always return one.

## `maxRows` (type: `integer`):

Stop after this many rows in total.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "isbns": [
    "9780140328721",
    "9780747532699",
    "9780062316097"
  ],
  "queries": [
    "things fall apart achebe",
    "atomic habits"
  ],
  "maxResultsPerQuery": 1,
  "maxRows": 1000
}
```

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "isbns": [
        "9780140328721",
        "9780747532699",
        "9780062316097"
    ],
    "queries": [
        "things fall apart achebe",
        "atomic habits"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("scrapemint/book-data-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "isbns": [
        "9780140328721",
        "9780747532699",
        "9780062316097",
    ],
    "queries": [
        "things fall apart achebe",
        "atomic habits",
    ],
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("scrapemint/book-data-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"])
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "isbns": [
    "9780140328721",
    "9780747532699",
    "9780062316097"
  ],
  "queries": [
    "things fall apart achebe",
    "atomic habits"
  ]
}' |
apify call scrapemint/book-data-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=scrapemint/book-data-scraper",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/fXJg5XHuEUfQHVgqb/builds/AtGneTdchU9CceKQc/openapi.json