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Open Library

Open, editable catalog and library platform for books

E-books & Media Library ★ 6.7k stars Hard setup AGPL-3.0

Open Library is the open-source platform behind openlibrary.org, an editable web catalog aiming for a page for every book ever published. The codebase can be self-hosted to run your own book catalog and lending system.

Official siteSource code

Key features

  • Editable book catalog
  • Lending library system
  • Public API
  • Massive metadata coverage

Pros & cons

Strengths

  • Huge catalog data
  • Battle-tested platform

Trade-offs

  • Heavy to self-host
  • Complex architecture

Is Open Library secure?

No known vulnerabilities affect Open Library's latest release (deploy-2026-10-13-at-20-42). OSV.dev lists 1 past advisory for the project; none of them applies to this release. No known vulnerabilities is not proof of security: it means none have been publicly catalogued.

  • Most recent fixed advisory CVE-2022-23081, published 2022-06-22 (1575 days ago)

Source: OSV.dev, checked 2026-10-14. How this is measured.

Open Library replaces

Self-hosted Goodreads alternatives

Health badge

Maintain Open Library? Add its health score to your README. The badge links back to this page.

SelfHostIndex: 93 · excellent

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   :alt: SelfHostIndex health score for Open Library
   :target: https://selfhostindex.com/app/openlibrary/

The score is recomputed on every nightly rebuild from public repository data — see how it is calculated.

Compare Open Library

6 head-to-head comparisons.

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