New updates have been released for the BHL API, plus new documentation about data exports and other services are now available on the Developer Tools and API section of the BHL wiki.

The BHL Application Programming Interface (API) is a set of web services that can be invoked via HTTP queries (GET/POST requests) or SOAP. Responses can be received in one of three formats: JSON, XML, or XML wrapped in a SOAP envelope.

Version 1 (formerly the BHL Name Services): Updated documentation for the first version of the API can be found at http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/api/docs/docs.html. This version of the API is provided solely to maintain backwards compatibility.

Version 2: The documentation for the latest version of the API can be found at http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/api2/docs/docs.html. The first version of the API was limited to data related to scientific names found in the BHL collection; version 2 adds access to title, author, volume, and page information. Please note that users are required to obtain an API Key from http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/getapikey.aspx in order to use version 2 of the API. This is the preferred version of the API.

View the API Privacy Policy and Terms Of Use.