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 2026-09-27T15:14:55Z in 0.206 seconds.

total:

1312283

page:

size:

items:

10 results

id:
a9ee2eaae95887a38c9294c6a2abb6e4
urn:
not reported by source
title:
Sandnes kommune : kommuneplan for Sandnes 1989-2004 : arealplan
creators:
1 results
1. Sandnes
year:
not reported by source
publisher:
Rådmannen
media_types:
1 results
1. kart
languages:
1 results
1. nor
county:
not reported by source
digital:
no
public_domain:
no
license:
copyrighted
viewability:
ALL
access_allowed_from:
EVERYWHERE
thumbnail:
not reported by source
viewer_url:
https://www.nb.no/items/a9ee2eaae95887a38c9294c6a2abb6e4
id:
074d7c2a6ec9c1b1cf401757fe0a7cbd
urn:
not reported by source
title:
Kommuneplan 1989-2004 : Sandnes kommune : arealbruk - hele kommunen
creators:
1 results
1. Sandnes
year:
1991
publisher:
Kommunen
media_types:
1 results
1. kart
languages:
1 results
1. nob
county:
not reported by source
digital:
no
public_domain:
no
license:
copyrighted
viewability:
NONE
access_allowed_from:
NB
thumbnail:
not reported by source
viewer_url:
https://www.nb.no/items/074d7c2a6ec9c1b1cf401757fe0a7cbd
id:
f40f12cad46c49c45bbe7445940e439e
urn:
URN:NBN:no-nb_digibok_2012111308061
title:
Kommuneplan for Sandnes kommune 2011-2025 : samfunnsdel - utvikling av samfunn og tjenester
creators:
1 results
1. Sandnes
year:
2011
publisher:
Sandnes kommune
media_types:
1 results
1. bøker
languages:
1 results
1. nob
county:
not reported by source
digital:
yes
public_domain:
yes
license:
publicdomain
viewability:
ALL
access_allowed_from:
EVERYWHERE
thumbnail:
https://www.nb.no/services/image/resolver/URN:NBN:no-nb_digibok_2012111308061_C1/full/0,128/0/native.jpg
viewer_url:
https://www.nb.no/items/f40f12cad46c49c45bbe7445940e439e
id:
632bd3a2c6141305e2fa5bae9b65348f
urn:
not reported by source
title:
Sandnes kommune : kommuneplan 1986-95 : arealplan
creators:
2 results
1. Norheim, Njål
2. Sandnes
year:
not reported by source
publisher:
Sandnes kommune
media_types:
1 results
1. kart
languages:
1 results
1. nor
county:
not reported by source
digital:
no
public_domain:
no
license:
copyrighted
viewability:
ALL
access_allowed_from:
EVERYWHERE
thumbnail:
not reported by source
viewer_url:
https://www.nb.no/items/632bd3a2c6141305e2fa5bae9b65348f
id:
be7d79cc6e52c5372b660c80d5211eb8
urn:
not reported by source
title:
Sandnes kommune : generalplan 1984-95 : arealdisponeringskisse
creators:
1 results
1. Sandnes
year:
not reported by source
publisher:
not reported by source
media_types:
1 results
1. kart
languages:
1 results
1. nor
county:
not reported by source
digital:
no
public_domain:
no
license:
copyrighted
viewability:
ALL
access_allowed_from:
EVERYWHERE
thumbnail:
not reported by source
viewer_url:
https://www.nb.no/items/be7d79cc6e52c5372b660c80d5211eb8
id:
1b55dca7869c5ee4cff92f4deee8f665
urn:
URN:NBN:no-nb_digibok_2016062208107
title:
Festskrift ved 100 års jubileet for Sandnes kirke
creators:
2 results
1. Bognø, Åge
2. Sandnes kirke (Sandnes)
year:
1982
publisher:
[Menighetsrådet]
media_types:
1 results
1. bøker
languages:
1 results
1. nob
county:
not reported by source
digital:
yes
public_domain:
no
license:
bokhylla
viewability:
NONE
access_allowed_from:
NORWAY
thumbnail:
https://www.nb.no/services/image/resolver/URN:NBN:no-nb_digibok_2016062208107_C1/full/0,128/0/native.jpg
viewer_url:
https://www.nb.no/items/1b55dca7869c5ee4cff92f4deee8f665
id:
8d3aa3071fbc54774e2a36cf567193bd
urn:
not reported by source
title:
Sandnes gjennom 100 år : Trekk av byens historie
creators:
2 results
1. Jonasen, Jonas Schanche
2. Sandnes Kommune
year:
19640101
publisher:
(Ingvald Dahle)
media_types:
1 results
1. bøker
languages:
1 results
1. nor
county:
not reported by source
digital:
no
public_domain:
no
license:
copyrighted
viewability:
ALL
access_allowed_from:
EVERYWHERE
thumbnail:
not reported by source
viewer_url:
https://www.nb.no/items/8d3aa3071fbc54774e2a36cf567193bd
id:
ab6f7139265800d36a5b9407ab738890
urn:
URN:NBN:no-nb_digitidsskrift_2023020181004_001
title:
Årbok (Sandnes historielag). 2022
creators:
1 results
1. Sandnes historielag
year:
2022
publisher:
Sandnes historielag
media_types:
1 results
1. tidsskrift
languages:
3 results
1. nob
2. mul
3. nno
county:
not reported by source
digital:
yes
public_domain:
no
license:
ccbyncnd
viewability:
ALL
access_allowed_from:
EVERYWHERE
thumbnail:
https://www.nb.no/services/image/resolver/URN:NBN:no-nb_digitidsskrift_2023020181004_001_0001/full/0,128/0/native.jpg
viewer_url:
https://www.nb.no/items/ab6f7139265800d36a5b9407ab738890
id:
0c0cf99984a43f4694cb8c60417f24df
urn:
not reported by source
title:
Adressekart Sandnes
creators:
2 results
1. eMap AS
2. Sandnes
year:
2021
publisher:
Sandnes kommune
media_types:
1 results
1. kart
languages:
1 results
1. nob
county:
not reported by source
digital:
no
public_domain:
no
license:
copyrighted
viewability:
NONE
access_allowed_from:
NB
thumbnail:
not reported by source
viewer_url:
https://www.nb.no/items/0c0cf99984a43f4694cb8c60417f24df
id:
9abc20370ec70b9b7035b1aef035de91
urn:
URN:NBN:no-nb_digibok_2025121648035
title:
Sandnes elektrisitetsverks historie : 1909-1984
creators:
1 results
1. Sandnes elektrisitetsverk
year:
1984
publisher:
Sandnes elektrisitetsverk
media_types:
1 results
1. bøker
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_digibok_2025121648035_C1/full/0,128/0/native.jpg
viewer_url:
https://www.nb.no/items/9abc20370ec70b9b7035b1aef035de91

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.