Ohhh. That looks promising - the Amazon API looks like to comes with a lot of baggage now. 

Thanks all,
Christina

-----Original Message-----
From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Mark Watkins
Sent: Wednesday, May 16, 2018 8:38 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] API for book descriptions?

Hi Christina,

You might consider the Harvard Open Metadata APIs, if they contain the works you are interested in. Free API and unlicensed content (the Amazon APIs do come with a license agreement/restrictions). 

Doc here: https://wiki.harvard.edu/confluence/display/LibraryStaffDoc/LibraryCloud+Item+API
Example: https://api.lib.harvard.edu/v2/items?title=gates%20of%20fire&name=pressfield (which gets you an XML file with a lot of metadata including descriptions).

You can also search by ISBN. 

If your works are in their DB, it's a great choice.

Mark