Library of Congress APIs
REST API for searching and retrieving materials from the Library of Congress digital collections, including photographs, maps, manuscripts, and books. Provides collection browsing, IIIF-based image delivery, and OCR text extraction with word-level coordinates.
Screenshot:
Slug: library-of-congress-apis
Key:
Base URL:
Auth: none
Endpoints: 17
Reachable: yes
CORS: unknown
Tier: verified
Last checked: 2026-03-14 16:08:32.541561
Key:
loc.gov:library-of-congress-apisBase URL:
https://www.loc.gov/websites/and/search/engines/Auth: none
Endpoints: 17
Reachable: yes
CORS: unknown
Tier: verified
Last checked: 2026-03-14 16:08:32.541561
Links
Documentation:
Topics
CULTURE, GOVERNMENT, KNOWLEDGE
Tutorials
- Getting Started with Library of Congress — I can search the Library of Congress catalog — books, photos, maps, manuscripts — and retrieve item metadata including digitized image URLs, but you must always append fo=json or you get HTML back.
Skills
- Search library of congress catalog — I can search the Library of Congress catalog — books, photos, maps, manuscripts — by keyword, format, or date range and retrieve digitized item records, but you must always append `fo=json` or you get HTML instead of JSON.
- Search loc collections — I can search the Library of Congress catalog — books, photos, maps, manuscripts — by keyword, format, and date range, but every request must include `fo=json` or you get HTML instead of JSON.
Endpoints (17)
| Path | Summary | Response | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|
| collections/ | List Collections | application/json |
none |
| collections/{collection} | Get Collection | application/json |
none |
| collections/{collection}/ | Get collection | application/json |
none |
| collections/{name}/ | Get collection details | application/json |
none |
| image-services/iiif/{identifier}/info.json | Get IIIF image metadata | text/html |
none |
| image-services/iiif/{identifier}/{region}/{size}/{rotation}/{quality}.{format} | Get IIIF image tile | image/* |
none |
| item/{id} | Get Item | application/json |
none |
| item/{id}/ | Get item details | application/json |
none |
| item/{item_id}/ | Get item details | application/json |
none |
| manuscripts/ | Search manuscripts | application/json |
none |
| maps/ | Search maps | application/json |
none |
| photos/ | Search photos | application/json |
none |
| search/ | Search Collections | text/html |
none |
| search/suggest/ | Search Suggestions | text/html |
none |
| sitemap.xml | Get sitemap index | text/html |
none |
| text-services/word-coordinates-service | Get word coordinates and OCR text | text/xml |
none |
| {collection}/ | Search specific collection | application/json |
none |