The Biodiversity Heritage Library's OpenURL query interface is available at https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/openurl.

Both OpenURL 0.1 and OpenURL 1.0 queries are supported.

Request Parameters

The following table summarizes the parameters that are accepted by the OpenURL 0.1 and 1.0 query interfaces.

OpenURL 0.1	OpenURL 1.0	Description
	url_ver=z39.88-2004	Indicates OpenURL version
title		Book/Journal/Article title
	rft.btitle	Book title
	rft.jtitle	Journal title
	rft.atitle	Article title
aulast	rft.aulast	Author last name
aufirst	rft.aufirst	Author first name
date	rft.date	Publication date (YYYY or YYYY-MM or YYYY-MM-DD)
volume	rft.volume	Volume
issue	rft.issue	Issue
spage	rft.spage	Start page
id=doi:XXXX	rft_id=info:doi/XXXX	DOI (where XXXX is the ID value)
pid=title:XXXX	rft_id=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/XXXX	BHL title ID (where XXXX is the ID value)
pid=item:XXXX	rft_id=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/XXXX	BHL item ID (where XXXX is the ID value)
pid=page:XXXX	rft_id=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/XXXX	BHL page ID (where XXXX is the ID value)
pid=part:XXXX	rft_id=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/part/XXXX	BHL part ID (where XXXX is the ID value)

Output Types

By default, the query interface will (if possible) redirect to the Biodiversity Heritage Library page containing the citation described by the query arguments. If more than one possible citation is found, the query interface redirects to a page from which the appropriate citation can be selected.

There are several additional ways that results from the query interface can be returned: JSON, XML, and HTML. To get the citation data in those formats, add the "format" argument to the end of the OpenURL query with one of the following values: "json", "xml", "html". If results are returned as JSON, a callback function may also be specified by adding a "callback" argument to the query.

Examples

Following are some example queries and responses.

The following query references Samual W. Williston, Manual of North American Diptera (New Haven :J.T. Hathaway) 16.

/openurl?
&genre=book
&title=Manual+of+North+American+Diptera
&aufirst=Samuel
&aulast=Williston
&date=1908
&spage=16


Click here to try it

Here's the same query, using the OpenURL 1.0 specification.

/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004
&ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004
&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook
&rft.genre=book
&rft.btitle=Manual+of+North+American+Diptera
&rft.aufirst=Samuel
&rft.aulast=Williston
&rft.date=1908
&rft.spage=16


Click here to try it

To receive the response in JSON, append "&format=json" to the end of the query, as shown here. This example shows the OpenURL 0.1 query syntax, but it will also work for OpenURL 1.0 queries.

/openurl?
&genre=book
&title=Manual+of+North+American+Diptera
&aufirst=Samuel
&aulast=Williston
&date=1908
&spage=16
&format=json


Click here to try it

To receive the response in JSON and specify a callback function, append "&format=json&callback=<functionname>" to the end of the query, as shown here. This example shows the OpenURL 0.1 query syntax, but it will also work for OpenURL 1.0 queries.

/openurl?
&genre=book
&title=Manual+of+North+American+Diptera
&aufirst=Samuel
&aulast=Williston
&date=1908
&spage=16
&format=json
&callback=functionname


Click here to try it

To receive the response in XML, append "&format=xml" to the end of the query, as shown here. Again, this will work for both OpenURL 0.1 and OpenURL 1.0 queries.

/openurl?
&genre=book
&title=Manual+of+North+American+Diptera
&aufirst=Samuel
&aulast=Williston
&date=1908
&spage=16
&format=xml


Click here to try it

To receive the response as an HTML fragment, append "&format=html" to the end of the query, as shown here. As with JSON and XML responses, this will work for both OpenURL 0.1 and OpenURL 1.0 queries.

/openurl?
&genre=book
&title=Manual+of+North+American+Diptera
&aufirst=Samuel
&aulast=Williston
&date=1908
&spage=16
&format=html


Click here to try it