columbia-clio

# Columbia CLIO Catalog Skill Search Columbia University Libraries' catalog of books, journals, manuscripts, and more. ## Critical: Things Claude Won't Know Without This Skill ### CLIO has an undocumented but fully functional JSON API CLIO runs on Blacklight (Solr-based). Append `.json` to catalog URLs for JSON responses. No API key required. ``` Search: https://clio.columbia.edu/catalog.json?q=hamlet&per_page=10 Record: https://clio.columbia.edu/catalog/{id}.json ``` ### Field-specific search uses `search_field` parameter ``` All fields: ?q=hamlet Title only: ?q=hamlet&search_field=title Author: ?q=shakespeare&search_field=author ``` ### Facets use array bracket syntax ``` ?f[format][]=Book ?f[language_facet][]=Chinese&f[format][]=Book ``` Available facets: `format`, `language_facet`, `location_facet`, `subject_topic_facet`, `subject_geo_facet`, `subject_era_facet`, `subject_form_facet`, `pub_date_sort`. ### This is undocumented — be a good citizen No rate limits are documented, but this is an unofficial API. Keep requests to 1/second max. The official bulk data is at `https://lito.cul.columbia.edu/extracts/ColumbiaLibraryCatalog/full/` (MARCXML, CC0). ## Key Search Parameters | Param | Description | Example | |-------|-------------|---------| | `q` | Search query | `q=dream+of+the+red+chamber` | | `search_field` | Limit to field: `title`, `author`, or all | `search_field=title` | | `per_page` | Results per page (default ~10) | `per_page=25` | | `page` | Page number | `page=2` | | `sort` | Sort: `pub_date_sort+desc`, `pub_date_sort+asc` | `sort=pub_date_sort+desc` | | `f[facet][]` | Filter by facet value | `f[format][]=Book` | ## Response Structure ```json { "response": { "docs": [ { "id": "12345678", "title_display": "Hamlet", "author_display": "Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616", "format": ["Book"], "pub_year_display": ["2003"], "pub_name_display": ["Cambridge University Press"], "language_facet": ["English"], "isbn_display": ["9780521532525"], "location_call_number_id_display": ["Butler Stacks PR2807 .A2 T48 2003 "] } ], "facets": [ ... ], "pages": { "current_page": 1, "total_pages": 5330, "total_count": 10659, "next_page": 2 } } } ``` ### Key Document Fields | Field | Description | |-------|-------------| | `id` | Catalog record ID | | `title_display` | Title | | `author_display` | Primary author | | `author_facet` | All authors (array) | | `format` | Format (Book, Online, Music, etc.) | | `pub_year_display` | Publication year(s) | | `pub_name_display` | Publisher | | `pub_place_display` | Place of publication | | `language_facet` | Language(s) | | `isbn_display` | ISBN(s) | | `oclc_display` | OCLC number(s) | | `lccn_display` | LCCN(s) | | `subject_topic_facet` | Subject terms | | `location_call_number_id_display` | Location + call number | | `physical_description_display` | Physical description | ## Python Script ```python from scripts.clio_api import ColumbiaClioAPI clio = ColumbiaClioAPI() # Search results = clio.search("hamlet", search_field="title", per_page=10) # With facets results = clio.search("chinese poetry", facets={"format": "Book", "language_facet": "Chinese"}) # Get single record record = clio.get_record("12345678") # Summarize for r in results: print(clio.summarize(r)) ``` ## Related Skills - **harvard-library-catalog**: Compare holdings across Harvard and Columbia - **hathitrust-catalog**: Use ISBNs/OCLCs from CLIO to check HathiTrust for digital versions - **wikidata-search**: Link OCLC numbers to Wikidata entities ## Resources - `references/api_reference.md` — Complete field and facet reference - `scripts/clio_api.py` — Python client with search, record lookup, and faceted filtering