Search the catalogue
search_itemsSearch the Internet Archive catalogue for films, books, recordings, images, software, and datasets. Match titles, creators, or descriptions, and filter by media type, year, and sorting.
Instructions
Search the Internet Archive catalogue: films, books, recordings, images, software and datasets. This matches titles, creators and descriptions, so a compilation whose notes mention a name ranks alongside that person's own work: read 'creator' on each row before treating a result as theirs. It does not read the contents of a scan; use search_inside for a phrase within a book. Set 'media_type' whenever the kind of thing is known, because one title exists across several media and mixing them makes a result list unreadable. 'oldest', 'newest', 'year_from' and 'year_to' all read one field: the date a depositor typed into the record. An item with no date carries a placeholder the index sorts as a real one, a date written as a fragment is filed at the year that fragment reads as, and the field holds no era, so a Babylonian tablet of 1712 BCE answers a search of 1700 to 1750. Read an order or a range as a statement about that field. Every row carries an 'identifier', which get_item takes.
Input Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| page | No | ||
| sort | No | 'downloads' surfaces what people actually read, which relevance alone often buries. 'oldest' and 'newest' rank on a declared date, not on when a thing was made. | relevance |
| limit | No | ||
| query | Yes | Words to look for in titles, creators and descriptions. | |
| year_to | No | Latest year, inclusive, on the record's declared date, which carries no era. | |
| year_from | No | Earliest year, inclusive, on the record's declared date, which carries no era. | |
| media_type | No | Narrow to one kind of thing. Strongly recommended. |
Output Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| page | Yes | ||
| items | Yes | ||
| notes | Yes | ||
| query | Yes | ||
| total | Yes | Items matching across the catalogue, not the number returned. |