Read one record, routed by the archive its identifier names
get_itemRetrieve a full record by identifier from Internet Archive or Library of Congress. Get identity, creator, date, description, reuse terms, and optional sections; long prose in resumable windows.
Instructions
Read one record in full from the archive its identifier names: what it is, who made it, when, what the archive says about it, and what a reader can open. 'identifier' must come from search_inside or search_items. It names the archive, so this reads the right one without guessing; a string no archive would have minted is refused, and a shape more than one archive mints is refused rather than sent to a guess, because sending it anywhere answers about the wrong thing. Terms of reuse come back on every read and belong to that record alone. A record stating none has granted nothing, and silence is never read as permission. 'sections' decides what else comes back, and the answer names what was left out and what this archive files nothing under: a field empty because nobody asked for it is a different thing from a field the archive never fills. 'description_means' says what the archive files under the field this reads a description out of, which holds an account of the thing on one record and a line of the catalogue entry on the next. Long prose is returned one window at a time: 'text_offset' says where to resume, and a window ends at a line boundary. An offset past the end says so rather than answering with an empty description. An answer can take several seconds, because one of the archives publishes a request ceiling this server keeps to.
Input Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| sections | No | Which parts to return besides the record's identity and its terms of reuse. | |
| identifier | Yes | From a search, such as 'archive:mobydickorwhale01melv' or 'loc:sn83030214/1900-01-01/ed-1/seq-1'. | |
| max_copies | No | Copies to list. The answer says how many more the record holds. | |
| text_offset | No | Where to resume in the record's prose, in characters from its start. | |
| max_text_chars | No | Characters of prose to return. The text block shows roughly the first 1400 of them and the whole window is in the structured output. The answer says where to resume. |
Output Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| item | Yes | ||
| notes | Yes | ||
| id_read_as | Yes | How a raw identifier was routed, when it was not spelled with its archive. | |
| text_window | Yes | Which part of the record's prose this answer carries. | |
| sections_omitted | Yes | Sections this call did not ask for. A field belonging to one of these is empty for that reason alone. | |
| sections_returned | Yes | ||
| fields_not_read_from_this_archive | Yes | Fields this server reads nothing into from this archive. A field named here is empty for every record it returns, which is a different thing from a record that left it blank. |