search

Search the National Library's catalog - books, newspapers, journals, photos, maps, music, manuscripts, radio/TV and more, both physical and digitized. Digitized text (OCR) is matched too by default, so a query can surface newspaper or book pages that mention a term even when it's not in the title.

Signature: search(q: string, required; media_type: string, optional, default None; language: string, optional, default None; county: string, optional, default None; year_from: integer, optional, default None; year_to: integer, optional, default None; digital_only: yes/no, optional, default False; sort: string, optional, default None; page: integer, optional, default 0; size: integer, optional, default 10; limit: integer, items, optional, default 25; offset: integer, items, optional, default 0)

Direct GET

For navigating agents: open the HTML page with parameters in the URL. The result is fetched and displayed without screenshots or form filling.

Open this validated HTML GET URL

https://allemannsdata.com/wiki/kilder/nasjonalbiblioteket/search/?q={q}&media_type={media_type}&language={language}&county={county}&year_from={year_from}&year_to={year_to}&digital_only=false&sort={sort}&page=0&size=10&limit=25&offset=0

Replace {q}, {media_type}, {language}, {county}, {year_from}, {year_to}, {digital_only}, {sort}, {page}, {size} with values. Remove unused optional parameters from the URL.

For software and dashboards: Read the operation descriptor. The JSON GET template is https://allemannsdata.com/wiki/api/v1/kilder/nasjonalbiblioteket/search?q={q}&media_type={media_type}&language={language}&county={county}&year_from={year_from}&year_to={year_to}&digital_only=false&sort={sort}&page=0&size=10&limit=25&offset=0. Open this exact request as JSON.

Parameter	Requirement	JSON type	Description
`q`	required	string	Free-text query. Supports field-restricted terms too, e.g. "subject:fiske year:1970" combined with free text.
`media_type`	optional	union	Restrict to one type, e.g. aviser (newspapers), bøker (books), tidsskrift (journals), bilder (photos), musikk, kart (maps), film, plakater (posters), noter (sheet music), radio, fjernsyn. See get_aggregations(q="*", group_by="mediatype") for the full list with counts.
`language`	optional	union	Language filter - values are inconsistent in the catalog (mixes codes like "nob" and labels like "Norsk bokmål"); check get_aggregations(q=q, group_by="languages") first if unsure.
`county`	optional	union	Norwegian county name, e.g. "Troms", "Oslo".
`year_from`	optional	union	Restrict to items published/issued in this year range (inclusive).
`year_to`	optional	union	Restrict to items published/issued in this year range (inclusive).
`digital_only`	optional	boolean	Only items that have been digitized.
`sort`	optional	union	One of date, title, otherid, firstDigitalContentTime, optionally suffixed ",desc" (default: relevance).
`page`	optional	integer	Zero-based page index.
`size`	optional	integer	Results per page, 1 to 100 (default 10).
`limit`	optional	integer	Gateway page size; default 25, maximum 100.
`offset`	optional	integer	Number of list items to skip; default 0.

Generated JavaScript, Python and response structure

Use JSON when the user requests code, machine-readable data, value extraction or further computation. Use the HTML GET page to identify the correct source and verify parameters.

Example for generated JavaScript and Python

https://allemannsdata.com/wiki/api/v1/kilder/nasjonalbiblioteket/search?q={q}&media_type={media_type}&language={language}&county={county}&year_from={year_from}&year_to={year_to}&digital_only=false&sort={sort}&page=0&size=10&limit=25&offset=0

Replace URL placeholders and remove unused optional parameters.

JavaScript in a dashboard

const url = "https://allemannsdata.com/wiki/api/v1/kilder/nasjonalbiblioteket/search?q={q}&media_type={media_type}&language={language}&county={county}&year_from={year_from}&year_to={year_to}&digital_only=false&sort={sort}&page=0&size=10&limit=25&offset=0";
const response = await fetch(url);
if (!response.ok) {
  const failure = await response.json();
  throw new Error(`${failure.error.code}: ${failure.error.message} ${failure.suggestion}`);
}
const result = await response.json();
const data = result.data;

Python without additional packages

import json
from urllib.request import urlopen

url = "https://allemannsdata.com/wiki/api/v1/kilder/nasjonalbiblioteket/search?q={q}&media_type={media_type}&language={language}&county={county}&year_from={year_from}&year_to={year_to}&digital_only=false&sort={sort}&page=0&size=10&limit=25&offset=0"
with urlopen(url) as response:
    result = json.load(response)
data = result["data"]

Response structure

{
  "source": "nasjonalbiblioteket",
  "operation": "search",
  "parameters": {},
  "data": {},
  "entities": [],
  "_meta": {"retrieved_at": "...", "sources": [], "cache": {}},
  "_links": {"self": "...", "source": "...", "wiki": "...", "feedback": "..."}
}

Form for manual use

The form is a fallback for people and browser agents that cannot open the GET URL directly.

q (required) Type: string. Free-text query. Supports field-restricted terms too, e.g. "subject:fiske year:1970" combined with free text.

media_type Type: string. Restrict to one type, e.g. aviser (newspapers), bøker (books), tidsskrift (journals), bilder (photos), musikk, kart (maps), film, plakater (posters), noter (sheet music), radio, fjernsyn. See get_aggregations(q="*", group_by="mediatype") for the full list with counts.

language Type: string. Language filter - values are inconsistent in the catalog (mixes codes like "nob" and labels like "Norsk bokmål"); check get_aggregations(q=q, group_by="languages") first if unsure.

county Type: string. Norwegian county name, e.g. "Troms", "Oslo".

year_from Type: integer. Restrict to items published/issued in this year range (inclusive).

year_to Type: integer. Restrict to items published/issued in this year range (inclusive).

digital_only Type: yes/no. Only items that have been digitized.

sort Type: string. One of date, title, otherid, firstDigitalContentTime, optionally suffixed ",desc" (default: relevance).

page Type: integer. Zero-based page index.

size Type: integer. Results per page, 1 to 100 (default 10).

Result

Source: National Library of Norway. Retrieved 2026-09-25T14:30:57Z in 0.176 seconds.

total:

225232

page:

size:

items:

10 results

id:
2879aa6a87c4fef867efa9a6da30caff
urn:
URN:NBN:no-nb_digitidsskrift_2025031980073_005
title:
AGI norsk grafisk tidsskrift. 2006 138
creators:
2 results
1. Aktuell grafisk informasjon
2. Mentor online
year:
2006
publisher:
AGI Publishing House
media_types:
1 results
1. tidsskrift
languages:
1 results
1. nob
county:
not reported by source
digital:
yes
public_domain:
no
license:
copyrighted
viewability:
NONE
access_allowed_from:
NB
thumbnail:
https://www.nb.no/services/image/resolver/URN:NBN:no-nb_digitidsskrift_2025031980073_005_0001/full/0,128/0/native.jpg
viewer_url:
https://www.nb.no/items/2879aa6a87c4fef867efa9a6da30caff
id:
ce0e714c37ae764d2f7f19a5c700e059
urn:
URN:NBN:no-nb_digitidsskrift_2025031980073_008
title:
AGI norsk grafisk tidsskrift. 2006 141
creators:
2 results
1. Aktuell grafisk informasjon
2. Mentor online
year:
2006
publisher:
AGI Publishing House
media_types:
1 results
1. tidsskrift
languages:
1 results
1. nob
county:
not reported by source
digital:
yes
public_domain:
no
license:
copyrighted
viewability:
NONE
access_allowed_from:
NB
thumbnail:
https://www.nb.no/services/image/resolver/URN:NBN:no-nb_digitidsskrift_2025031980073_008_0001/full/0,128/0/native.jpg
viewer_url:
https://www.nb.no/items/ce0e714c37ae764d2f7f19a5c700e059
id:
0476ab5c2e866e33807b3367bf5301d1
urn:
URN:NBN:no-nb_digitidsskrift_2025031980073_004
title:
AGI norsk grafisk tidsskrift. 2006 137
creators:
2 results
1. Aktuell grafisk informasjon
2. Mentor online
year:
2006
publisher:
AGI Publishing House
media_types:
1 results
1. tidsskrift
languages:
1 results
1. nob
county:
not reported by source
digital:
yes
public_domain:
no
license:
copyrighted
viewability:
NONE
access_allowed_from:
NB
thumbnail:
https://www.nb.no/services/image/resolver/URN:NBN:no-nb_digitidsskrift_2025031980073_004_0001/full/0,128/0/native.jpg
viewer_url:
https://www.nb.no/items/0476ab5c2e866e33807b3367bf5301d1
id:
919198ab9ce2210da013f57304feddea
urn:
URN:NBN:no-nb_digitidsskrift_2025031980073_001
title:
AGI norsk grafisk tidsskrift. 2006 134
creators:
2 results
1. Aktuell grafisk informasjon
2. Mentor online
year:
2006
publisher:
AGI Publishing House
media_types:
1 results
1. tidsskrift
languages:
1 results
1. nob
county:
not reported by source
digital:
yes
public_domain:
no
license:
copyrighted
viewability:
NONE
access_allowed_from:
NB
thumbnail:
https://www.nb.no/services/image/resolver/URN:NBN:no-nb_digitidsskrift_2025031980073_001_0001/full/0,128/0/native.jpg
viewer_url:
https://www.nb.no/items/919198ab9ce2210da013f57304feddea
id:
c70bff1e41141d475b940a61d01ccd15
urn:
URN:NBN:no-nb_digitidsskrift_2025031980073_010
title:
AGI norsk grafisk tidsskrift. 2006 143
creators:
2 results
1. Aktuell grafisk informasjon
2. Mentor online
year:
2006
publisher:
AGI Publishing House
media_types:
1 results
1. tidsskrift
languages:
1 results
1. nob
county:
not reported by source
digital:
yes
public_domain:
no
license:
copyrighted
viewability:
NONE
access_allowed_from:
NB
thumbnail:
https://www.nb.no/services/image/resolver/URN:NBN:no-nb_digitidsskrift_2025031980073_010_0001/full/0,128/0/native.jpg
viewer_url:
https://www.nb.no/items/c70bff1e41141d475b940a61d01ccd15
id:
38772d0510e306cda3d2565db6fbd674
urn:
URN:NBN:no-nb_digitidsskrift_2025031980073_002
title:
AGI norsk grafisk tidsskrift. 2006 135
creators:
2 results
1. Aktuell grafisk informasjon
2. Mentor online
year:
2006
publisher:
AGI Publishing House
media_types:
1 results
1. tidsskrift
languages:
1 results
1. nob
county:
not reported by source
digital:
yes
public_domain:
no
license:
copyrighted
viewability:
NONE
access_allowed_from:
NB
thumbnail:
https://www.nb.no/services/image/resolver/URN:NBN:no-nb_digitidsskrift_2025031980073_002_0001/full/0,128/0/native.jpg
viewer_url:
https://www.nb.no/items/38772d0510e306cda3d2565db6fbd674
id:
7d5de4d1d65f9ae43e9d036e1a8b84f4
urn:
URN:NBN:no-nb_digitidsskrift_2025031980073_003
title:
AGI norsk grafisk tidsskrift. 2006 136
creators:
2 results
1. Aktuell grafisk informasjon
2. Mentor online
year:
2006
publisher:
AGI Publishing House
media_types:
1 results
1. tidsskrift
languages:
1 results
1. nob
county:
not reported by source
digital:
yes
public_domain:
no
license:
copyrighted
viewability:
NONE
access_allowed_from:
NB
thumbnail:
https://www.nb.no/services/image/resolver/URN:NBN:no-nb_digitidsskrift_2025031980073_003_0001/full/0,128/0/native.jpg
viewer_url:
https://www.nb.no/items/7d5de4d1d65f9ae43e9d036e1a8b84f4
id:
a0bff402450a22c6512d3940b021b273
urn:
URN:NBN:no-nb_digitidsskrift_2025031980073_009
title:
AGI norsk grafisk tidsskrift. 2006 142
creators:
2 results
1. Aktuell grafisk informasjon
2. Mentor online
year:
2006
publisher:
AGI Publishing House
media_types:
1 results
1. tidsskrift
languages:
1 results
1. nob
county:
not reported by source
digital:
yes
public_domain:
no
license:
copyrighted
viewability:
NONE
access_allowed_from:
NB
thumbnail:
https://www.nb.no/services/image/resolver/URN:NBN:no-nb_digitidsskrift_2025031980073_009_0001/full/0,128/0/native.jpg
viewer_url:
https://www.nb.no/items/a0bff402450a22c6512d3940b021b273
id:
4c3588a5c4a103855a0641b6de6797e1
urn:
URN:NBN:no-nb_digitidsskrift_2025031980072_007
title:
AGI norsk grafisk tidsskrift. 2005 129
creators:
2 results
1. Aktuell grafisk informasjon
2. Mentor online
year:
2005
publisher:
AGI Publishing House
media_types:
1 results
1. tidsskrift
languages:
1 results
1. nob
county:
not reported by source
digital:
yes
public_domain:
no
license:
copyrighted
viewability:
NONE
access_allowed_from:
NB
thumbnail:
https://www.nb.no/services/image/resolver/URN:NBN:no-nb_digitidsskrift_2025031980072_007_0001/full/0,128/0/native.jpg
viewer_url:
https://www.nb.no/items/4c3588a5c4a103855a0641b6de6797e1
id:
fd3dddc6b47ac4fe765f1e77196b3cd9
urn:
URN:NBN:no-nb_digitidsskrift_2025031980071_006
title:
AGI norsk grafisk tidsskrift. 2004 117
creators:
2 results
1. Aktuell grafisk informasjon
2. Mentor online
year:
2004
publisher:
AGI Publishing House
media_types:
1 results
1. tidsskrift
languages:
1 results
1. nob
county:
not reported by source
digital:
yes
public_domain:
no
license:
copyrighted
viewability:
NONE
access_allowed_from:
NB
thumbnail:
https://www.nb.no/services/image/resolver/URN:NBN:no-nb_digitidsskrift_2025031980071_006_0001/full/0,128/0/native.jpg
viewer_url:
https://www.nb.no/items/fd3dddc6b47ac4fe765f1e77196b3cd9

limit:

offset:

returned:

has_more_results:

yes

truncated:

yes

next_offset:

Will you use the result in generated code?

Open the same result as JSON

Is data missing or incorrect? Send feedback about this result.

Continue exploring

How an AI agent should use this page

Ground rule: Navigate with HTML GET links to keep explanations and relationships. Use the page's JSON alternative only when concrete values must be extracted, compared or computed.

How to use the search lookup

Replace the placeholders in the HTML GET template; remove optional parameters you do not need.
Check types, units, limits and ID formats in the parameter table.
Follow linked results to canonical pages before combining sources.

Misreading to avoid: An empty list means "no results for this lookup". An error message or unavailable source does not mean the data does not exist.

Source-specific next step

Go to the source page for other operations. Use the JSON template only after the HTML result shows that the parameters and source are correct.

AI agent? Read the complete navigation and programming guide.