Getting Started as an Open Librarian

So you've been browsing Open Library for a while and noticed something that could be better — a missing cover, a wrong publication date, an author with no biography. Good news: you can fix it. This guide walks you through your first contribution, from creating an account to saving your first edit.

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1. Create an account

Go to openlibrary.org/account/create and sign up for free. You'll need an email address. Once verified, you're ready to contribute.

Already have an Internet Archive account? Open Library is part of the Internet Archive — you can log in with the same credentials.

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2. Understand what you can edit

Open Library has three main types of records, and you can edit all of them:

• Works — The abstract idea of a book (title, subject, description). One work can have many editions. Work IDs end with W (e.g. OL5731538W).
  
• Editions — A specific physical or digital release (publisher, year, ISBN, cover image, page count). You may also see this called a manifestation in library cataloguing terminology. Edition IDs end with M.
  
• Authors — A person's name, bio, birth/death dates, and links to external databases like Wikidata. Author IDs end with A (e.g. OL4586796A).

If you see an Edit button on a page, you're allowed to edit it.

A note on author disambiguation: Sometimes books by different authors with the same name end up combined under a single author profile — this is called conflation. If you notice an author profile that seems to contain works from more than one person, do not try to fix it yourself. Report it by emailing openlibrary@archive.org instead, as resolving conflated profiles requires elevated privileges and care to avoid data loss. Reviews can take a while, so please be patient.

Each record has a unique ID — works end with W, editions with M, and authors with A — that permanently identifies that specific record. These IDs should never be repurposed or reassigned to a different record, as doing so can corrupt reading logs and lists for existing users, and break integrations for anyone using the API.

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3. Find something to improve

You don't need a plan — just start with something you notice. Your own bookshelf is a great place to look for books that might be missing or incomplete. Some easy first contributions:

• A book missing its cover image
  
• A publication date that's wrong or blank
  
• An author with no biography
  
• A typo in a title or description

You can also browse Recent Community Edits to see what others are working on and get a feel for the kinds of changes people make.

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4. Make your first edit

A word of caution: Before changing existing metadata, make sure the record is actually wrong and not simply a different edition than the one you have in mind. The same work can have many editions with legitimately different publishers, dates, and page counts. When in doubt, check the edition's other details or review the edit history to see where the existing metadata came from before making changes.

Editing a book record (edition)

1. Find the book page you want to improve.
   
2. Click Edit in the top-right area of the page.
   
3. You'll see fields for publisher, publication date, ISBN, language, pages, and more. Fill in or correct what you can.
   
4. Scroll down to the Add a note field and briefly describe your change (e.g. "Added publication date and publisher"). This helps other contributors understand your edit.
   
5. Click Save.

Editing a work

On a book's main page, look for the Work Details tab in the edit view. Here you can update the description, subjects, and series information. When adding or editing an author, type their name into the author field and make sure to select them from the dropdown menu that appears — if you just type the name without selecting from the dropdown, it will not be saved.

Editing an author

Navigate to the author's page and click Edit. You can add a bio, birth and death dates, Wikipedia link, and identifiers like their Wikidata ID.

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5. Add a new book or edition

Before adding anything, search first. Duplicates are one of the most common issues on Open Library.

If the work doesn't exist at all (no page for the book in any edition):

1. Click Add a Book in the navigation menu (under "Contribute").
   
2. Fill in the fields: title, author, publisher, publication date, format (hardcover, paperback, ebook, etc.), and ISBN if you have it.
   
3. Click Save to create the record. This creates both a work and an edition at the same time.

If the work already exists but your specific edition doesn't (e.g. the 1995 paperback is listed but not the 2003 ebook):

1. Go to the work's page.
   
2. Click Add an Edition near the edition list.
   
3. Fill in the details specific to that edition — publisher, date, ISBN, format, language.
   
4. Click Save. This adds a new edition under the existing work, without creating a duplicate work record.

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6. Add a cover image

1. On a book's page, click the cover placeholder (or the existing cover if you have a better one).
   
2. You can upload an image file or copy and paste one directly.
   
3. Use the front cover only. If a cover is already present, do not replace it unless it is clearly incorrect. Make sure it matches the specific edition you're editing, not just any edition of the work.

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7. Check your work

After saving, review the page to make sure everything looks right. Click History at the top of the page to see a log of all edits, including yours. You can compare versions to verify your changes.

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8. A few good habits

• Cite your source. If you're adding a publication date or ISBN, note where you found it in the "Please, leave a short note about what you changed:" field when saving your edit (e.g. "Publication date from copyright page").
  
• Merging duplicates requires additional privileges. If you find duplicate records, merging them isn't something new contributors can do right away — access to the merge request tool requires elevated permissions. Focus on getting comfortable with basic edits first, then look into requesting merge access once you've built up some experience.

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Where to get help

• Open Library Help Center
  
• Editing FAQ
  
• Open Library on GitHub — for reporting bugs or contributing code
  
• Slack — Open Library has a Slack community for contributors. Email openlibrary@archive.org to request an invitation.