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 2026-09-26T00:41:13Z in 0.331 seconds.

total:

201

page:

size:

items:

10 results

id:
df6b35119b05d1b53b1b0496be9ed52b
urn:
URN:NBN:no-nb_digavis_hallingdolen_null_null_20180315_80_31_1
title:
Hallingdølen
creators:
not reported by source
year:
20180315
publisher:
not reported by source
media_types:
1 results
1. aviser
languages:
1 results
1. Norsk bokmål
county:
Buskerud
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_digavis_hallingdolen_null_null_20180315_80_31_1-01_001_seksjonsnavn/full/0,128/0/native.jpg
viewer_url:
https://www.nb.no/items/df6b35119b05d1b53b1b0496be9ed52b
id:
200dcc557f96c1e297177276e661520f
urn:
URN:NBN:no-nb_digavis_hallingdolen_null_null_20041109_66_130_1
title:
Hallingdølen
creators:
not reported by source
year:
20041109
publisher:
not reported by source
media_types:
1 results
1. aviser
languages:
1 results
1. Norsk bokmål
county:
Buskerud
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_digavis_hallingdolen_null_null_20041109_66_130_1-1_001_null/full/0,128/0/native.jpg
viewer_url:
https://www.nb.no/items/200dcc557f96c1e297177276e661520f
id:
31cfcff58534f453fb85c5ebdf470c0a
urn:
URN:NBN:no-nb_digavis_hallingdolen_null_null_20020725_64_84_1
title:
Hallingdølen
creators:
not reported by source
year:
20020725
publisher:
not reported by source
media_types:
1 results
1. aviser
languages:
1 results
1. Norsk bokmål
county:
Buskerud
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_digavis_hallingdolen_null_null_20020725_64_84_1-1_001_null/full/0,128/0/native.jpg
viewer_url:
https://www.nb.no/items/31cfcff58534f453fb85c5ebdf470c0a
id:
cf27346609e942f3ef4b25520576d69c
urn:
URN:NBN:no-nb_digavis_hallingdolen_null_null_19910608_54_65_1
title:
Hallingdølen
creators:
not reported by source
year:
19910608
publisher:
not reported by source
media_types:
1 results
1. aviser
languages:
1 results
1. Norsk bokmål
county:
Buskerud
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_digavis_hallingdolen_null_null_19910608_54_65_1-1_001_null/full/0,128/0/native.jpg
viewer_url:
https://www.nb.no/items/cf27346609e942f3ef4b25520576d69c
id:
8936936208c2d766a10333fae980aa77
urn:
URN:NBN:no-nb_digavis_hallingdolen_null_null_20001019_62_122_1
title:
Hallingdølen
creators:
not reported by source
year:
20001019
publisher:
not reported by source
media_types:
1 results
1. aviser
languages:
1 results
1. Norsk bokmål
county:
Buskerud
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_digavis_hallingdolen_null_null_20001019_62_122_1-1_001_null/full/0,128/0/native.jpg
viewer_url:
https://www.nb.no/items/8936936208c2d766a10333fae980aa77
id:
99504b909e3e0ac89887bf774078e9bc
urn:
URN:NBN:no-nb_digavis_hallingdolen_null_null_19750916_37_138_1
title:
Hallingdølen
creators:
not reported by source
year:
19750916
publisher:
not reported by source
media_types:
1 results
1. aviser
languages:
1 results
1. Norsk bokmål
county:
Buskerud
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_digavis_hallingdolen_null_null_19750916_37_138_1-1_001_null/full/0,128/0/native.jpg
viewer_url:
https://www.nb.no/items/99504b909e3e0ac89887bf774078e9bc
id:
bad01c6acd67e953d7d7a3c549712df9
urn:
URN:NBN:no-nb_digavis_hallingdolen_null_null_19890511_51_52_1
title:
Hallingdølen
creators:
not reported by source
year:
19890511
publisher:
not reported by source
media_types:
1 results
1. aviser
languages:
1 results
1. Norsk bokmål
county:
Buskerud
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_digavis_hallingdolen_null_null_19890511_51_52_1-1_001_null/full/0,128/0/native.jpg
viewer_url:
https://www.nb.no/items/bad01c6acd67e953d7d7a3c549712df9
id:
cbbb489cee25ecdc8a5888c00707eb62
urn:
URN:NBN:no-nb_digavis_hallingdolen_null_null_19801002_42_113_1
title:
Hallingdølen
creators:
not reported by source
year:
19801002
publisher:
not reported by source
media_types:
1 results
1. aviser
languages:
1 results
1. Norsk bokmål
county:
Buskerud
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_digavis_hallingdolen_null_null_19801002_42_113_1-1_001_null/full/0,128/0/native.jpg
viewer_url:
https://www.nb.no/items/cbbb489cee25ecdc8a5888c00707eb62
id:
9a8cb5d7f750eda04dea7e5b2ebeb2d5
urn:
URN:NBN:no-nb_digavis_hallingdolen_null_null_20040417_66_44_1
title:
Hallingdølen
creators:
not reported by source
year:
20040417
publisher:
not reported by source
media_types:
1 results
1. aviser
languages:
1 results
1. Norsk bokmål
county:
Buskerud
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_digavis_hallingdolen_null_null_20040417_66_44_1-1_001_null/full/0,128/0/native.jpg
viewer_url:
https://www.nb.no/items/9a8cb5d7f750eda04dea7e5b2ebeb2d5
id:
359326deea9f3bb5076601d8c25577df
urn:
URN:NBN:no-nb_digitidsskrift_2026031180004_012
title:
Brannmannen. 2004 Vol. 59 Nr. 6
creators:
not reported by source
year:
2004
publisher:
Oslo brannkorpsforening
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_2026031180004_012_0001/full/0,128/0/native.jpg
viewer_url:
https://www.nb.no/items/359326deea9f3bb5076601d8c25577df

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.