OverDrive Libby Library Availability Scraper

Scrape real-time ebook and audiobook availability from any public library's OverDrive/Libby catalog. Provide one or more library slugs (e.g. lapl for LA Public Library, nypl for New York Public Library) and search queries — the actor returns copy counts, holds, estimated wait times, and full metadata for every matching title.

What you get

Each output record contains:

Field	Description
library	Library slug (e.g. lapl)
query	Search query that returned this title
title	Book title
subtitle	Subtitle (if present)
creators	Pipe-separated authors/narrators with roles
media_type	ebook or audiobook
formats	Pipe-separated format IDs (e.g. ebook-overdrive | ebook-kindle)
isbn	ISBN from the primary format
publisher	Publisher name
publish_date	Publication date (YYYY-MM-DD)
subjects	Pipe-separated subject categories
languages	Pipe-separated language names
availability_status	available or waitlist
owned_copies	Number of copies the library owns
available_copies	Copies currently available to borrow
holds_count	Number of holds in the queue
estimated_wait_days	Estimated wait in days (0 if available now)
cover_url	Cover image URL (300 px wide)
sample_url	Free sample URL (if available)
detail_url	Direct link to the title on Libby
reserve_id	OverDrive internal ID (UUID)

Input

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
libraryIds	array	Yes	OverDrive library slugs (e.g. ["lapl", "nypl"])
queries	array	Yes	Search terms (e.g. ["Stephen King", "fiction"])
maxItems	integer	No	Max total records to return (0 = unlimited)

Finding your library's slug

The slug is the short identifier in your library's OverDrive/Libby URL. Examples:

• Los Angeles Public Library: lapl
• New York Public Library: nypl
• Chicago Public Library: chipublib
• Toronto Public Library: torontopubliclibrary

Open libbyapp.com, sign in, and find the slug in the URL after /library/.

Example input

{
    "libraryIds": ["lapl", "nypl"],
    "queries": ["Stephen King", "science fiction"],
    "maxItems": 200
}

This returns up to 200 results from both LAPL and NYPL for both queries — every combination.

Use cases

• Publishers & authors — Track copy counts and holds across library systems to gauge demand for your titles
• Library analytics — Compare collection depth across multiple libraries
• Reading research — Find which libraries have a title available now vs. waitlisted
• Market research — Identify which genres or authors have the most library demand

Notes

• Uses the public OverDrive thunder API — no authentication or API key required
• The API is rate-polite by default (~2 requests/second)
• Results reflect real-time availability at the time of the run
• Multi-library × multi-query runs fetch every combination (e.g. 3 libraries × 4 queries = 12 API streams)