For developers

Library API

Every published record is available over a free, read-only JSON API so you can use this library as the knowledge source for agents, retrieval pipelines, and other AI tools. No key or sign-in is required, CORS is open, and responses are cached for a minute.

Endpoints

get/api/public/v1/items

Paginated list of published records. Filters: q, media_type, tag, author, year_from, year_to, merrill_only, limit (max 100), offset.

get/api/public/v1/items/{slug}

A single record with its concept tags and a link to its page here.

get/api/public/v1/search?q=...

Meaning-based retrieval across the indexed corpus, ranked by relevance. Add mode=keyword for literal matching, or limit (max 50).

get/api/public/v1/tags

The curated concept taxonomy — First Principles, Component Display Theory, and the rest.

get/api/public/v1/openapi

An OpenAPI 3.1 description of everything above — point a tool-calling agent or a custom GPT straight at it.

Example

curl "https://themerrilllibrary.org/api/public/v1/search?q=task-centred%20instruction%20for%20onboarding&limit=5"

Each result carries the title, authors, year, media type, abstract, an AI summary, the source URL where one is freely available, its concept tags, and a record_url you can cite back to readers.

{
  "query": "task-centred instruction for onboarding",
  "mode": "semantic",
  "results": [
    {
      "slug": "first-principles-of-instruction",
      "title": "First Principles of Instruction",
      "authors": ["M. David Merrill"],
      "year": 2002,
      "media_type": "article",
      "tags": [{ "slug": "first-principles", "name": "First Principles of Instruction" }],
      "record_url": "https://themerrilllibrary.org/items/first-principles-of-instruction",
      "relevance": 0.82
    }
  ]
}

Notes

Only published records are exposed; drafts and submissions under review are never returned.
Uploaded files are not served through the API — link to source_url or the record page so rights stay with the original authors and publishers.
Meaning-based search covers records that have been indexed; keyword mode always covers everything published.