rdnb is an R wrapper for the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
(German National Library) API, available at https://www.dnb.de/EN/Home/home_node.html. As the German
central archival library, the German National Library is collecting,
archiving, bibliographically classifying all German and German-language
publications, foreign publications about Germany, translations of German
works, and the works of German-speaking emigrants published abroad
between 1933 and 1945.
All bibliographic data of the German National Library are provided free of charge and can be freely re-used under “Creative Commons Zero” (CC0 1.0) terms. The metadata and online interfaces are provided with no guarantee of their being continuous, punctual, error-free or complete, or of their not infringing the rights of third parties (e.g. personal rights and copyright).
rdnb is available on CRAN and GitHub. Install from
CRAN:
To install the development version from GitHub the
devtools-package is required.
rdnb provides two approaches to expose a search. For
common search requests use the simple dnb_search function.
More complex requests are possible using the dnb_advanced
function.
dnb_searchUse the title parameter to search in titles, including
subtitle, short title, volume title, etc.
A vector of strings combines search terms. Strings in a vector are
“OR”-combined by default. Logical operators can be changed by starting a
string with + or -, thus the following code
searches for titles containing one of “katze” or “kater”, “maus” but not
“hund”.
Use the year parameter to limit the year(s) of
publication. Set year to a single integer value to specify
a single year. Set the parameter to a sequence to specify start and end.
Or set the parameter to a vector of integer values to specify a set of
years.
Publisher name and/or location may be limited by the
publisher parameter. Logical operators can be set as
explained above.
single.publisher <- dnb_search(title="katze", publisher="kiepenheuer")
single.publisher.location <- dnb_search(title="katze", publisher="*verlag leipzig*")
pub.or.pub <- dnb_search(title="katze", publisher=c("kiepenheuer", "piper"))
pub.and.pub <- dnb_search(title="katze", publisher=c("*kinder*", "+*berlin*"))
pub.not.pub <- dnb_search(title="katze", publisher=c("pi*", "-piper"))Keyword (subjects, persons, locations, organisations, etc.) search is
available using the keyword parameter. Logical operators
can be set as explained for title search.
The DNB discriminates between several publication types:
The type parameter can be specified as single string
value (named above) or a vector of string values, that will be combined
by “OR”. Short terms of the available types usually work.
The DNB also archives publications in other languages than German, e.g. when they are about Germany or publicated in Germany. The language(s) can be filtered by ISO 639-2/B code, like “ger” (German), “eng” (English), “fre” (French), “spa” (Spanish) or “gsw” (Swiss German). A vector of string values is combined by “OR”.
Use the limit parameter to set the number and optionally
the starting point of the results returned. A single integer value
(possible values: 1-100) specifies the number of results only. Use a
vector of two integer values to specify the number of results (first
value of vector) and the first result (1 or higher). Set
limit to “all” for a complete list of results.
Per default no results are printed. Set print to
TRUE to print the data.frame with the
results.
cats <- dnb_search(title="katze", limit=3, print=TRUE)
#> id link
#> 1 1116362198 https://d-nb.info/1116362198
#> 2 1120516579 https://d-nb.info/1120516579
#> 3 1125403497 https://d-nb.info/1125403497
#> author
#> 1 Teckentrup, Britta (ill); Teckentrup, Britta (aut)
#> 2 Frey, Alexander Moritz (aut)
#> 3 Krokowski, Carola (aut)
#> title subtitle
#> 1 Alles Natur - Meine kleine Katze <NA>
#> 2 Birl, die kühne Katze Ein Märchen
#> 3 Blutwerte - Pferd, Hund, Katze Blutwerte verstehen!
#> publisher year language isbn
#> 1 Ars Edition, München 2017 ger 9783845815886
#> 2 Elsinor Verlag, Coesfeld 2017 ger 9783942788373
#> 3 Igelsburg Verlag, Habichtswald 2017 ger 9783941933200
#> price pages
#> 1 Pappe : EUR 7.99 (DE), EUR 8.30 (AT), CHF 11.90 (freier Preis) 16
#> 2 Broschur : circa EUR 12.80 (DE), circa EUR 13.20 (AT) 88
#> 3 : EUR 29.95 (DE), EUR 29.95 (DE), EUR 30.80 (AT), EUR 30.30 (AT) 2
#> format edition keyword toc
#> 1 17.3 cm x 17.3 cm <NA> <NA> <NA>
#> 2 19 cm x 12 cm 1. Auflage, neue Ausgabe <NA> <NA>
#> 3 <NA> 1. Auflage <NA> <NA>
#> description
#> 1 https://deposit.d-nb.de/cgi-bin/dokserv?id=992efedfe14a4b06ad7dc4f344cd9e87&prov=M&dok_var=1&dok_ext=htm
#> 2 <NA>
#> 3 <NA>
#> cover
#> 1 https://portal.dnb.de/opac/mvb/cover.htm?isbn=978-3-8458-1588-6
#> 2 https://portal.dnb.de/opac/mvb/cover.htm?isbn=978-3-942788-37-3
#> 3 https://portal.dnb.de/opac/mvb/cover.htm?isbn=978-3-941933-20-0The following data is stored in the data.frame (if
available):
| Variable | Description |
|---|---|
| id | DNB record ID |
| link | link to record |
| author | author(s) |
| title | main title |
| subtitle | subtitle |
| publisher | publisher |
| year | year of publication |
| language | language (abbreviation) |
| isbn | ISBN (13-digit or 10-digit) |
| price | price (as string, usually prices for DE, AT and CH) |
| pages | pages |
| format | size and weight (partial) |
| edition | edition |
| keyword | keyword(s) |
| toc | link to table of contents |
| description | link to description |
| cover | link to cover image |
dnb_advanceddnb_advanced allows for complex requests using the
Contextual Query Language (CQL). See the DNB
advanced search help pages for available indices and a list of
examples.
The following advanced search returns a list of german or english children’s books titled with ‘cat’, excluding titles containing ‘dog’, since the year 2001:
Use n_rec to get the total number of records found by a
request:
To print the query used for a DNB-search, call
print_query:
You can use this query (or an edited version) directly with the
dnb_advanced function: