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Open Library is an open, editable library catalog, building towards a web page for every book ever published.

Are you looking to get started?This is the guide you are looking for. You may wish to learn more aboutGoogle Summer of Code (GSoC)? orHacktoberfest.

• Overview
• Installation
• Code Organization
• Architecture
  • The Frontend
  • The Backend
  • The Service Architecture
• Developer's Guide
• Running Tests
• Contributing
• Public APIs
• FAQs

Open Library is an effort started in 2006 to create "one web page for every book ever published." It provides access to many public domain and out-of-print books, which can be read online.

Here's a quick public tour of Open Library to get you familiar with the service and its offerings (10min).

• Learn more about the Open Library project
• The Vision (Dream) of OpenLibrary
• Visit the Blog

Rundocker compose up and visithttp://localhost:8080

Need more details? Checkout theDocker instructionsorvideo tutorial.

Alternatively, if you do not want to set up Open Library on your local computer, try Gitpod!This lets you work on Open Library entirely in your browser without having to install anything on your personal computer.Warning: This integration is still experimental.

You can also find more information regarding Developer Documentation for Open Library in the Open LibraryWiki.

• openlibrary/core - core openlibrary functionality, imported and used by www
• openlibrary/plugins - other models, controllers, and view helpers
• openlibrary/views - views for rendering web pages
• openlibrary/templates - all the templates used in the website
• openlibrary/macros - macros are like templates, but can be called from wikitext

OpenLibrary is developed on top of the Infogami wiki system, which is itself built on top of the web.py Python web framework and the Infobase database framework.

• Overview of Backend Web Technologies

Once you've read the overview of OpenLibrary Backend technologies, it's highly encouraged you read the developer primer which explains how to use Infogami (and its database, Infobase).

• Infogami Developer Tutorial

If you want to dive into the source code for Infogami, see theInfogami repo.

Open Library tests can be run using docker. Kindly look up on ourTesting Document for more details.

docker compose run --rm home make test

There are many ways volunteers can contribute to the Open Library project, from development and design to data management and community engagement. Here’s how you can get involved:

• Getting Started: Check out ourContributing Guide for instructions on how to set up your development environment, find issues to work on, and submit your contributions.
• Good First Issues: Browse ourGood First Issues to find beginner-friendly tasks.

• Design Contributions: We welcome designers to help improve the user experience. You can start by looking atdesign-related issues.

• Data Contributions: Learn how to contribute to our catalog and help improve book data on Open Library. Visit ourvolunteer page for more information.

• Join our Community Calls: Open Library hosts weekly community and design calls. Check thecommunity call schedule for times and details.
• Ask Questions: If you have any questions, request an invitation to our Slack channel on ourvolunteers page.

For more detailed information, refer to theContributing Guide.

All source code published here is available under the terms of theGNU Affero General Public License, version 3.