Random Library Book

Pick a completely random book from a public library catalog and find out exactly where to get it.

No seed words, no search bias — the app picks a random catalog ID directly from the library's ID space, so every item in the collection has an equal shot.

Web app

https://kabirsingh.github.io/Random-BPL-Book/

Supported libraries:

Library	Catalog system	Author/description
Boston Public Library	BiblioCommons	✓
Detroit Public Library	SirsiDynix	—
San Francisco Public Library	BiblioCommons	✓
Chicago Public Library	BiblioCommons	✓
Seattle Public Library	BiblioCommons	✓
Toronto Public Library	BiblioCommons	✓

Detroit Public Library uses SirsiDynix, which doesn't expose a public API for bibliographic data. DPL results show title, call number, and branch availability — click the record link for full details.

CLI

Supports all the same libraries as the web app. Defaults to Detroit Public Library.

Requirements

Python 3.10+ and the requests library:

pip install requests

Usage

python3 main.py                  # Detroit Public Library (default)
python3 main.py -l bpl           # Boston Public Library
python3 main.py -l sfpl          # San Francisco Public Library
python3 main.py -l chipublib     # Chicago Public Library
python3 main.py -l seattle       # Seattle Public Library
python3 main.py -l tpl           # Toronto Public Library
python3 main.py --list           # show all supported libraries
python3 main.py --help           # show usage

How it works

BiblioCommons libraries

BiblioCommons powers the catalog for Boston, San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, Toronto, and many other public libraries. Every physical item has an ID of the form S{N}C{number} where N is the library's BiblioCommons ID. The app picks a random integer in the known valid range, checks whether a record exists, and fetches title, author, description, and per-branch availability via BiblioCommons' public API. The hit rate is ~55%, so it typically resolves in 1–2 tries.

Detroit Public Library

DPL uses SirsiDynix. The app calls SirsiDynix's lookupTitleInfo REST endpoint to get branch availability, and fetches the catalog page title for the book name. Author and description aren't available through the public API.

Architecture

main.py                — CLI entry point
lib/libraries.py       — library registry and config
lib/connector.py       — orchestration layer
lib/bc_api.py          — DAL for BiblioCommons libraries
lib/dpl_api.py         — DAL for Detroit Public Library (SirsiDynix)
docs/index.html        — web frontend (GitHub Pages)
worker.js              — Cloudflare Worker CORS proxy