Northwestern University Libraries Digital Collections API MCP Server

by nulib Your server? Claim it

answering

Northwestern University Libraries Digital Collections API is answering right now. Last checked moments ago. 436 installs a week from npm. It exposes 8 tools. Last commit 6 Nov 2026.

Agent integration with the Northwestern University Libraries Digital Collections API

Installs per day peak 249 · avg 28 · +31% w/w

a month agotoday

Uptime history 91 days of history

91 days agonow

100.0%

Uptime 24h

92 of 92 checks

Tools

read from the server

729 ms

Response time

average over 24h

436

Installs / week

npm and PyPI

What changed 15

Every tool that appeared, vanished or quietly changed what it asks for. Recorded since 29 August 2026. No other catalogue keeps this.

5 Nov a tool changed version

29 Oct a tool changed version

15 Sep a tool changed version

11 Sep a tool changed version2 times that day

28 Aug 8 tools changed the parameters they ask for get-work, list-collections, search and 5 more

28 Aug a tool changed version2 times that day

and 2 more, back to 29 August 2026

Nothing serious here today

Today is the operative word: we check Northwestern University Libraries Digital Collections API every 15 minutes and re-read its code on every release. Watch it and you find out the day that stops being true.

Connect this server

Endpoint below is the one we actually reach during checks — not the one copied from a README. Last verified 0 min ago.

Claude Code Claude Desktop Codex Cursor VS Code

run in your terminal

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

Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector, then paste this address

https://api.dc.library.northwestern.edu/api/v2/mcp

~/.codex/config.toml

[mcp_servers.dc-api]
url = "https://api.dc.library.northwestern.edu/api/v2/mcp"

.cursor/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dc-api": {
      "url": "https://api.dc.library.northwestern.edu/api/v2/mcp"
    }
  }
}

.vscode/mcp.json

{
  "servers": {
    "dc-api": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://api.dc.library.northwestern.edu/api/v2/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Available tools 8

Read directly from the server with tools/list, grouped by what they act on. If a tool disappears, we record the date.

view

view-collection

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

view-search-results

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

view-similar-works

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

view-work

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

collections

list-collections

List collection records from the NUL Digital Collections.

search

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. The result will also include a list of aggregations that show how many results match different values for certain fields. For example, you could see how many results match each collection, work type, or visibility and use that information to refine your search. Perform an empty search to retrieve all works and their aggregations. NOTE: Structured field values enclosed in double quotes will be treated as exact, case-sensitive matches, while unquoted values will be treated as full-text searches.

similarity

similarity-search

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

work

get-work

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

Endpoints

URL	Transport	State	Latency	Checked
https://api.dc.library.northwestern.edu/api/v2/mcp	streamable-http	answering	654 ms	0 min ago

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Northwestern University Libraries Digital Collections API — questions

Answers built from our own checks of this server.

What can Northwestern University Libraries Digital Collections API do?

It exposes 8 tools, read directly from the server on our last check. Among them: get-work, list-collections, search, similarity-search, view-collection, view-search-results and 2 more. The full list with descriptions is on this page — we take it from the server itself via tools/list, not from a README. How MCP servers expose tools in the first place →

Is Northwestern University Libraries Digital Collections API working right now?

We send a real MCP handshake every 15 minutes. Over the last 24 hours 92 of 92 checks got a reply (100.0%), average response time 729 ms. The bar chart above shows every period we have measured.

How do I connect Northwestern University Libraries Digital Collections API?

Copy the ready config from this page. We generate it for Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Codex, Cursor and VS Code, each in the form that client actually reads. It is a remote server, so there is nothing to install — the client connects to the address.

Does Northwestern University Libraries Digital Collections API need an API key?

No. Northwestern University Libraries Digital Collections API completed a full MCP handshake with us as an anonymous client and listed its tools without asking for anything. All 8 of them are readable on this page. This is what we observed, not what the docs claim.

How fast is Northwestern University Libraries Digital Collections API?

It answers our handshake in 729 ms on average, which is faster than 11% of all working MCP servers we measure. That is on the slow side — worth knowing if the tool sits inside an interactive loop. The comparison comes from our own checks across the whole registry, every 15 minutes.

How many people use Northwestern University Libraries Digital Collections API?

The npm package @nulib/dc-api-mcp was installed 436 times in the last week. Week over week that is +31%. We show installs rather than GitHub stars on purpose: a star is a bookmark, an install is someone actually running it.

Is Northwestern University Libraries Digital Collections API open source?

The code is open source: it is published under the MIT licence, written in TypeScript, 14 stars on GitHub and 2 open issues. The licence covers the code in the repository, not the hosted service at api.dc.library.northwestern.edu, which runs on its operator's own terms.