Archive.org

How to Use This API

1. Basic Search

https://archive.org/advancedsearch.php?q=space+exploration&output=json

2. Filter by Media Type

Use mediatype to narrow results:

https://archive.org/advancedsearch.php?q=space&mediatype=movies&output=json

Media types: texts, movies, audio, software, images, web, etree, collection.

3. Control Results

Paginate with rows and page, sort by sort[]:

https://archive.org/advancedsearch.php?q=javascript&rows=5&page=1&sort[]=downloads+desc&output=json

4. JavaScript — Search Archive

async function searchArchive(query, mediaType = 'texts') {
  const params = new URLSearchParams({
    q: query,
    mediatype: mediaType,
    rows: 10,
    output: 'json'
  });
  
  const resp = await fetch(
    `https://archive.org/advancedsearch.php?${params}`
  );
  const data = await resp.json();
  const docs = data.response.docs;
  
  docs.forEach(doc => {
    console.log(`📄 ${doc.title}`);
    console.log(`  By: ${doc.creator || 'Unknown'}`);
    console.log(`  Year: ${doc.year || '?'}`);
    console.log(`  Identifier: ${doc.identifier}`);
  });
}

searchArchive('moon landing', 'movies');

5. Python — Download Metadata

import requests

params = {
    'q': 'python programming',
    'mediatype': 'texts',
    'rows': 5,
    'fl': 'title,creator,description,downloads',
    'sort': ['downloads desc'],
    'output': 'json'
}
resp = requests.get('https://archive.org/advancedsearch.php', params=params)
results = resp.json()['response']['docs']
for r in results:
    print(f"{r.get('title', '?')} — {r.get('downloads', 0)} downloads")
    print(f"  {r.get('description', '')[:100]}...")