How can I lookup data about a book from its barcode number? [closed]

Answer 1

I frequently recommend using Amazon's Product Affiliate API (check it out here https://affiliate-program.amazon.com), however there are a few other options available as well.

If you want to guarantee the accuracy of the data, you can go with the a paid solution. GS1 is the organization that issues UPC codes, so their information should always be accurate (https://www.gs1us.org/tools/gs1-company-database-gepir).

There are also a number of third party databases with relevant information such as https://www.upccodesearch.com/ or https://www.upcdatabase.com/ .

Answer 2

Nothing like an answer nearly 5 years after the fact, but here's my couple of shiny pennies worth.

I'm currently building something that would do the job just nicely... https://blinked.in - what is fast becoming the largest UPC / EAN13 barcode database (we've added over 7M barcodes in the last week alone), whilst we're still in the alpha stage of development we're introducing a very straightforward, low cost API to provide just this sort of data access.

We've only been in dev for a couple of months, but already have a stable web platform, rapidly expanding database and desire to keep things simple.

Hope this helps you, or some future reader, in some way.

Updated

Our API is now live - https://blinked.in/api - and we've thrown in a 100 free calls per day, and you can earn credit from helping us discover new barcodes - https://blinked.in/bandwidthaccount

Answer 3

If you're wanting to use Amazon you can implement it easily with LINQ to Amazon.

Answer 4

Note: I'm the LibraryThing guy, so this is partial self-promotion.

Take a look at this StackOverflow answer, which covers some good ways to get data for a given ISBN.

To your issues, Amazon includes a simple DDC (Dewey); Google does not. The WorldCat API does, but you need to be an OCLC library to use it.

The ISBN/UPC issue is complex. Prefer the ISBN, if you can find them. Mass market paperbacks sometimes sport UPCs on the outside and an ISBN on inside.

LibraryThing members have developed a few pages on the issue and on efforts to map the two:

• http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/UPC
• http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/CueCat:_ISBNs_and_Barcodes

If you buy from Borders your book's barcodes will all be stickered over with their own internal barcodes (called a "BINC"). Most annoyingly whatever glue they use gets harder and harder to remove cleanly over time. I know of no API that converts them. LibraryThing does it by screenscraping.

For an API, I'd go with Amazon. LibraryThing is a good non-API option, resolving BINCs and adding DDC and LCC for books that don't have them by looking at other editions of the "work."

What's missing is the label part. Someone needs to create a good PDF template for that.

Answer 5

Using the web site Library Thing, you can scan in your barcodes (the entire barcode, not just the ISBN - if you have a scanning "wedge" you're in luck) and build your library. (It is an excellent social network - think StackOverflow for book enthusiasts.)

Then, using the TOOLS section, you can export your library. Now you have a text file to import/parse and can create your labels, a card catalog, etc.

Answer 6

Edit It would be pretty easy if you had ISBN. but converting from UPC to ISBN is not as easy as you'd like.

Here's some javascript code for it from http://isbn.nu where it's done in script

if (indexisbn.indexOf("978") == 0) {
   isbn = isbn.substr(3,9);
   var xsum = 0;
   var add = 0;
   var i = 0;
   for (i = 0; i < 9; i++) {
        add = isbn.substr(i,1);
        xsum += (10 - i) * add;
   }
   xsum %= 11;
   xsum = 11 - xsum;
   if (xsum == 10) { xsum = "X"; }
   if (xsum == 11) { xsum = "0"; }
   isbn += xsum;
}

However, that only converts from UPC to ISBN some of the time.

You may want to look at the barcode scanning project page, too - one person's journey to scan books.

So you know about Amazon Web Services. But that assumes amazon has the book and has scanned in the UPC.

You can also try the UPCdatabase at http://www.upcdatabase.com/item/{UPC}, but this is also incomplete - at least it's growing..

The library of congress database is also incomplete with UPCs so far (although it's pretty comprehensive), and is harder to get automated.

Currently, it seems like you'd have to write this yourself in order to have a high-level lookup that returns simple information (and tries each service)