Unlocking Data: A Gentle Introduction to APIs

APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) serve as powerful tools for accessing and interacting with data in a structured and automated manner, providing capabilities far beyond what is possible through traditional interfaces. Despite their ubiquity in software development, APIs remain underutilized in humanities research, where they offer immense potential for innovative data collection and analysis.

In this session, we’ll demystify APIs and showcase their potential through the Library of Congress API. Participants will see step-by-step how to identify if a collection has API access, construct requests, and interpret responses, all with tools like Postman. We’ll walk through concepts like authentication, endpoints, parameters, and how to transform JSON responses into tabular data for visualization.

This session is designed as a show-and-tell introduction—perfect for researchers and students with no prior coding or data analysis experience. By the end, attendees will have a clear understanding of how APIs work, their practical applications, and how to start integrating them into their research workflows. Get ready to see what APIs can do for your projects! This demonstration is part of the UC Love Data Week 2025 Program (uc-love-data-week.github.io) and is open to all UC affiliates. Please register with your UC campus email.

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