Data model

work (fds_wk_…)  →  edition (fds_ed_…)  →  ISBN / product
contributor (fds_au_…)

Entity	Prefix	What it is
Work	fds_wk_	Abstract title. Synopsis lives here.
Edition	fds_ed_	A specific publication. What product UIs want.
Contributor	fds_au_	Author / editor / etc.

Ids are stable across releases. If two records merge, the oldest id survives and the retired id 301s. Follow redirects.

About 8.4M of 78.2M works have a description in this release.

Book object

Returned by ISBN, book id, search hits, and match candidates.

{
  "id": "fds_ed_37306635333664393039",
  "work_id": "fds_wk_61363037333564616531",
  "title": "Project Hail Mary",
  "subtitle": null,
  "authors": ["Andy Weir"],
  "contributors": [
    { "id": "fds_au_37316331633930383534", "name": "Andy Weir", "role": "author" }
  ],
  "isbn13": "9780593135204",
  "isbn10": "0593135202",
  "publication_date": null,
  "publisher": null,
  "language": "eng",
  "subjects": [],
  "page_count": null,
  "format": null,
  "kind": "primary",
  "identifiers": [],
  "description": "Ryland Grace is the sole survivor…",
  "description_source": "open_library.description",
  "release": "2026-09.2",
  "schema_version": "books.v1"
}

Field	Notes
id	Edition id
work_id	Parent work
title, subtitle	Edition title. subtitle may be null
authors	Display names. Open Library /authors/OL… keys are resolved on read. Some editions are still []
contributors	Same people with fds_au_… ids when we can resolve them. Use this to link an author page. Empty when the edition has no joinable name or OL key
isbn13, isbn10	May be null
publication_date, publisher, language, subjects, page_count, format	Often sparse
kind	Computed from title / subjects / format: primary, graphic, derivative, audio, set
identifiers	{ namespace, value } pairs
description, description_source	From the parent work (open_library.description when present)
release	e.g. 2026-09.2
schema_version	Always books.v1

Work object

{
  "id": "fds_wk_61363037333564616531",
  "title": "Project Hail Mary",
  "subtitle": null,
  "language": "eng",
  "subjects": [],
  "series": null,
  "description": "Ryland Grace is the sole survivor…",
  "description_source": "open_library.description",
  "release": "2026-09.2"
}

Contributor object

{
  "id": "fds_au_37316331633930383534",
  "name": "Andy Weir",
  "sort_name": "Weir, Andy",
  "release": "2026-09.2"
}