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DPLA Catalog MCP server

by ianderso·io.github.ianderso/dpla-catalog-mcp·v0.1.1
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Search the Digital Public Library of America; reach the holding institution's record and images.

B83/100grade B
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Safety scan
B83/100

full report

Adoption
Growing

0 stars82 downloads/wk

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If you have run it, two minutes of your experience saves the next person an afternoon.

DPLA Catalog tools (6)

write = sends, deletes, buys or posts

Read from the package source without running it. The installed server may list more.

  • api_status

    Report whether a DPLA key is set (never its value), this session's calls, and the last error.

  • facet_items

    Count what DPLA holds before searching.

  • get_item

    Read DPLA records in full, with `citation_parts` for the holder's record.

  • get_item_images

    List an item's page images from the IIIF manifest on the holding institution's site.

  • search_items

    Search DPLA's descriptions of digitised items held by US libraries, archives and museums.

  • search_items_advanced

    search_items with every filter DPLA offers, returning the same hits.

Public scan report

scanner v0.1.10 · 2026-10-14 · same rubric, same numbers if you re-run it

no findings
  • Code scan8 source files scanned25/25
  • –Live reliabilityno gateway calls yet and no remote to proben/a
  • –Tool poisoningtools not inspected (local package is not executed); not countedn/a
  • Auth qualitystatic API keys via environment variables6/15
  • Maintenancelast push 8 days ago15/15
  • Maintainer identityregistry namespace matches repository owner; GitHub account older than a year8/10
Overall 83/100. Components that don't apply are left out of the denominator. Any critical finding is an F.RubricAppeal a findingJSON

How DPLA Catalog compares

Against every graded Web search MCP server, from our own scans and uptime checks. Updated after each scan run.

Safety score
83/100
higher than 70% of 3,470 Web search servers
Tools
6
the typical Web search server has 5
Tools that change things
0%
typical: 0%. Fewer write tools means less an agent can break
Downloads a week
82
more than 52% of 827 Web search servers with a package

What its tools let an agent do: 6 read

Install DPLA Catalog in Claude Code, Cursor or VS Code

claude mcp add dpla-catalog-mcp -- uvx dpla-catalog-mcp
Add to Cursor

What the publisher says

From the DPLA Catalog repository's README, as published. We do not edit it. Read it on GitHub

dpla-catalog-mcp

<!-- mcp-name: io.github.ianderso/dpla-catalog-mcp -->

An MCP server for the Digital Public Library of America: one search across descriptions of more than 50 million digitised items held by hundreds of US libraries, archives, historical societies and museums. For family history that means county atlases and plat books, city directories, county histories, yearbooks, local newspapers and photographs, many of them held by a small institution you would not think to search.

DPLA holds none of these items. It gathers the descriptions that holding institutions publish, through state and regional "hubs", and every record points back at the item on the holding institution's own site. That page is where the evidence is and what a citation names. The server is built around that fact: each hit carries isshownat (the item at its holder), the holding institution, and the rights statement for the digital copy; getitem assembles the parts of a citation of the holder's record; and getitem_images lists the page images from the holder's own IIIF manifest when it publishes one.

It works the way a careful genealogist does. A DPLA record is a finding aid to a finding aid: written by the institution, harvested by a hub, and enriched by DPLA. DPLA searches that metadata only, never the text inside a book or on a page. The tools say so, in the descriptions a model reads.

Nothing here writes anywhere, and nothing here keeps a family tree. It sits well beside nara-catalog-mcp (federal records, with OCR and page images), snac-archives-mcp (which archive holds the papers) and familysearch-mcp (indexed records and images).

This is an independent project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or supported by the Digital Public Library of America or any contributing institution.

Tools

The server publishes six tools, all read-only and annotated so for the client. One makes no network call at all.

Finding items

Reading an item

The server itself

Shortened. The full README is on GitHub.

Nothing above is checked by us. What we check is on the safety report.

DPLA Catalog: common questions

Is DPLA Catalog MCP server safe?
Mostly: it is graded B (83/100). Read the DPLA Catalog safety report
How do I install DPLA Catalog?
It runs on your machine. Copy the Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code or Claude Desktop config from the install section.
Does DPLA Catalog need an API key?
Yes. The registry entry asks for DPLA_API_KEY.
Is DPLA Catalog maintained?
The last commit was 29 days ago (2026-10-06). The latest release is v0.1.1.
What can I use instead of DPLA Catalog?
Servers from other publishers that do the same job: Zotero MCP server, Brave Search MCP server and GitHits MCP server.
How does DPLA Catalog compare with other Web search MCP servers?
safety score 83/100 (higher than 70% of 3,470 Web search servers); tools 6 (the typical Web search server has 5); tools that change things 0% (typical: 0%. Fewer write tools means less an agent can break). Full comparison.

Alternatives to DPLA Catalog

Same job from other publishers: the closest match first, then the best rated.

  • Zotero MCP
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  • Papersgpt For Zotero
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  • Brave
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