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Digital Public Library of America

Digital Public Library of America Items API

Search and retrieve cultural heritage item metadata records

Documentation Provider Profile APIs.io OpenAPI GitHub

Digital Public Library of America Items API is one of 5 APIs that Digital Public Library of America publishes on the APIs.io network, described by a machine-readable OpenAPI specification.

Tagged areas include Item. The published artifact set on APIs.io includes an OpenAPI specification, API documentation, a getting-started guide, authentication docs, and a GitHub repository.

This API exposes 2 operations across 2 paths, and defines 14 schemas. It is described by OpenAPI 3.0.3, at version 2.

Requests are made against a single base URL, https://api.dp.la/v2.

2 operations 2 paths 14 schemas 2 GET

Metadata

The identity and technical contract details declared by the specification.

Specification
OpenAPI 3.0.3
API Version
2
Base URL
https://api.dp.la/v2
Authentication
API Key, API Key
Contact
DPLA Developer Portal
License
MIT
Terms of Service
View terms
Resource Areas
1

Authentication & Security 2

Digital Public Library of America Items API declares 2 security schemes for authenticating requests. An API key is passed in the query as api_key (ApiKeyQuery). An API key is passed in the header as Authorization (ApiKeyHeader). By default, every request must be authenticated.

  • ApiKeyQuery — DPLA API key passed as a query parameter. Obtain a free key by sending a POST to /apikey/{email}.
  • ApiKeyHeader — DPLA API key passed as an Authorization header value (not Bearer scheme — just the raw 32-character key).

Paths & Operations 2

Across 2 paths, the API surfaces 2 operations — 2 GET. Each is listed below with its method, path, parameters, and response codes.

Items 2

Search and retrieve cultural heritage item metadata records

GET
/items
Search cultural heritage items
searchItems 43 params → 200400403500
GET
/items/{id}
Fetch a single item by ID
fetchItem 2 params → 200403404500

Schemas 14

The contract defines 14 schemas that model the data the API accepts and returns. The most detailed are SourceResource (20 properties), DPLAItem (17 properties), SpatialLocation (8 properties), ItemSearchResponse (7 properties). Each schema is shown below with its type and property counts.

Language
object
Language of the item.
2 properties
FacetResult
object
Aggregated facet counts for a specific field.
2 properties
SpatialLocation
object
A geographic location associated with the item.
8 properties
ErrorResponse
object
Standard error response body.
3 properties 2 required
FacetTerm
object
A single facet term with its document count.
2 properties
ItemSearchResponse
object
JSON-LD response envelope for a list of DPLA item records.
7 properties
DPLAItem
object
A single DPLA cultural heritage item metadata record (DPLA MAP v4).
17 properties
SubjectTerm
object
A subject heading term.
4 properties
Collection
object
The collection this item belongs to at the contributing institution.
4 properties
WebResource
object
A web-accessible representation or view of the item.
4 properties
ItemFetchResponse
object
JSON-LD response for a single DPLA item or batch of items.
4 properties
DateRange
object
A date or date range associated with the item.
5 properties
SourceResource
object
The intellectual content and descriptive metadata of the original cultural heritage object, following DPLA Metadata Application Profile.
20 properties
Agent
object
An organization or institution acting as provider or data provider.
3 properties

Specification

The full machine-readable OpenAPI contract behind this narrative.

Source

dpla-items-api-openapi.yml Raw ↑

Other APIs Digital Public Library of America publishes across the network.

DPLA API Key Registration
AE Profile APIs.io
Digital Public Library of America Authentication API
AE Profile APIs.io
Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets API
AE Profile APIs.io
Digital Public Library of America Utilities API
AE Profile APIs.io
#Item
← Back to D APIs
API Details
ID
dpla:dpla-items-api
Base URL
https://api.dp.la/v2
Docs
https://pro.dp.la/developers/api-codex
Provider
Digital Public Library of America
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