Free Obsidian plugin
Book Lookup
Create book notes from Open Library or Google Books, with cover images, ISBN search and Book Search compatible templates.
Install from the Obsidian directory Open in Obsidian Source code and issues
What it does
Create a note for any book from Open Library or Google Books: search by title, author or ISBN, pick the result, and get a note with properties, a cover and a description.
Book Lookup is a successor to Book Search. It reads the same template variables, imports its settings with one button, and names notes the same way, so you can switch without rewriting your templates.
Highlights
- Create book note opens a search window. Type a title, an author or an ISBN (10 or 13 digits, with or without hyphens). Each result shows a cover thumbnail, the title, the authors and the year. Pick one and the note is created in your book folder and opened.
- Insert book metadata into this note searches (starting from the note's name) and fills the properties of the note you are in. Properties that already have a value are never changed, unless you turn on "Overwrite existing properties".
Titleandtitlecount as the same property. - Two providers. Open Library is the default: no key, no quota. Google Books can be used without a key, but Google often refuses keyless requests ("quota exceeded"); a free API key in the settings avoids that.
- ISBN search goes straight to the ISBN endpoint, so it finds that edition rather than a list of guesses.
- Cover images can be saved in your vault (Settings, Covers).
{{localCoverImage}}and thecoverproperty then point to the file. - If the note exists, it is opened, not overwritten.
- Import settings from Book Search copies its folder, file name format, template file, cover settings and "open the note" setting from
.obsidian/plugins/obsidian-book-search-plugin/data.json. Its API key is not copied.
Details
- Version
- 0.1.0
- Needs Obsidian
- 1.4.4 or newer
- Platforms
- Desktop and mobile
- Author
- Siulved54
- Price
- Free and open source