New package idea: book metadata API

[rmounce]

Are there any packages specifically built around getting book metadata from ISBNs, and vice versa?

The short pitch is essentially: rcrossref but for ISBNs.

There are a number of interesting APIs and it would be nice to have an #rstats package that wraps across the different APIs out there.

Existing relevant APIs include but are not limited to… :

• Google Books API Using the API  |  Google Books APIs  |  Google Developers
• Internet Archive Open Library API Developer Center / APIs / Books API | Open Library
• ISBNdb https://isbndb.com/apidocs
• Amazon API https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSECommerceService/latest/DG/EX_LookupbyISBN.html
• OCLC WorldCat APIs https://platform.worldcat.org/api-explorer/apis

The book metadata search experience is quite poor imo. I wonder if an rstats package could make it better?

Example query: return metadata, inc. ISBNs, for all MIT Press books published between 2010 and 2015.

Would this be something of wide interest?

[sckott]

Ross. Thanks for the post.

You’re right that there isn’t much in the way of book specific search tools. I guess Crossref does include some books though.

http://api.crossref.org/types/book/works?rows=0

~700K it seems

A book focused package sounds great. Are you interested in leading it?

[rywhale]

I’d be interested in assisting with this if it goes anywhere.