Northwestern University Libraries Digital Collections API

nulib/dc-api-v2

Connects Claude to Northwestern University Libraries' Digital Collections API, giving you programmatic access to their archival materials, manuscripts, and digitized special collections. You can search across works and collections, retrieve IIIF manifests for viewing images and documents, and query transcription text using IIIF Content Search 2.0. The API exposes both standard JSON endpoints and IIIF Presentation responses, so you can integrate historical research, metadata extraction, or content discovery workflows directly into your conversations. Useful when you need to explore academic digital collections, cite archival sources, or work with structured cultural heritage data without leaving your development environment.

tools: 8
transport: STDIO, HTTP
last updated: Oct 29, 2026

View on GitHub

Install

From registry metadata

$ npx add-mcp https://api.dc.library.northwestern.edu/api/v2/mcp --name dc-api

Run in your terminal. add-mcp asks which agents to add it to (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and more). Add -g to install it for every project.

Review the command, arguments and environment values before installing. MCP servers run with your local permissions.

Other ways

Claude Code

$ claude mcp add --transport http dc-api https://api.dc.library.northwestern.edu/api/v2/mcp

Run in your terminal. Add --scope user to make it available in every project.

Tools

Verified live · 8 tools

Verified live against the running server on Nov 6, 2026.

searchSearch for works in the Digital Collections using field-based and/or natural language queries. If both a natural language query and specific field values are provided, the natural language query will take priority, using the specified field values as additional constraints. Th...5 params

Search for works in the Digital Collections using field-based and/or natural language queries. If both a natural language query and specific field values are provided, the natural language query will take priority, using the specified field values as additional constraints. Th...

Parameters* required

fieldsobject

Structured field search. Best when searching for specific known items or values, or for narrowing a search by specifying particular fields to search within.

max_resultsnumber

The maximum number of search results to return per pagedefault: 10

pagenumber

The page of search results to returndefault: 1

public_onlyboolean

Only include publicly available works in search resultsdefault: true

querystring

A natural language query. Best for exploratory / conceptual searches.

get-workRetrieve the full metadata for a work from the NUL Digital Collections.1 params

Retrieve the full metadata for a work from the NUL Digital Collections.

Parameters* required

work_id*string

The ID of the work to retrieve

list-collectionsList collection records from the NUL Digital Collections.3 params

List collection records from the NUL Digital Collections.

Parameters* required

max_resultsnumber

The maximum number of search results to return per pagedefault: 10

pagenumber

The page of search results to returndefault: 1

public_onlyboolean

Only include publicly available works in search resultsdefault: true

similarity-searchFind works that are similar to a given work. Uses semantic similarity based on work embeddings.4 params

Find works that are similar to a given work. Uses semantic similarity based on work embeddings.

Parameters* required

max_resultsnumber

The maximum number of search results to return per pagedefault: 10

pagenumber

The page of search results to returndefault: 1

public_onlyboolean

Only include publicly available works in search resultsdefault: true

work_id*string

ID of a work to find similar items for.

view-workView a work from the NUL Digital Collections in an interactive viewer.1 params

View a work from the NUL Digital Collections in an interactive viewer.

Parameters* required

work_id*string

The ID of the work to view

view-collectionView a collection from the NUL Digital Collections in an interactive viewer.1 params

View a collection from the NUL Digital Collections in an interactive viewer.

Parameters* required

collection_id*string

The ID of the collection to view

view-search-resultsView results from the search-works tool in an interactive viewer.5 params

View results from the search-works tool in an interactive viewer.

Parameters* required

fieldsobject

Structured field search. Best when searching for specific known items or values, or for narrowing a search by specifying particular fields to search within.

max_resultsnumber

The maximum number of search results to return per pagedefault: 10

pagenumber

The page of search results to returndefault: 1

public_onlyboolean

Only include publicly available works in search resultsdefault: true

querystring

A natural language query. Best for exploratory / conceptual searches.

view-similar-worksView results from the similarity-search tool in an interactive viewer.4 params

View results from the similarity-search tool in an interactive viewer.

Parameters* required

max_resultsnumber

The maximum number of search results to return per pagedefault: 10

pagenumber

The page of search results to returndefault: 1

public_onlyboolean

Only include publicly available works in search resultsdefault: true

work_id*string

ID of a work to find similar items for.

Readme

dc-api-v2

Local development setup

`env.json`

The env.json file contains environment variable values for the lambda functions defined in the API for use in local development. You can create an env.json file containing the values to run the API against your dev data by running:

make env.json

If the file already exists, it will not be overwritten unless you include -B in the make command.

Running the API locally

To start the API in development mode, first make sure you have the correct version of the AWS SAM command line utility installed:

asdf install aws-sam-cli

Then run the following command:

make serve

The API will be available at:

View the full README on GitHub

Details

Repository: github.com/nulib/dc-api-v2
Category: AI & LLM Tools
Package: @nulib/dc-api-mcp
Transport: STDIO, HTTP
Registry: MCP registry, active
Resources: 1
Tools verified: Nov 6, 2026

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