swiss-academic-libraries-mcp 0.2.0

MCP Server für Schweizer Wissenschaftsbibliotheken: swisscovery (500+ Bibliotheken via SRU), e-rara, e-periodica und e-manuscripta (OAI-PMH). Kein API-Key erforderlich.

🇨🇭 Part of the Swiss Public Data MCP Portfolio

📚 swiss-academic-libraries-mcp

MCP server providing access to Swiss academic libraries — swisscovery, e-rara, e-periodica, e-manuscripta. No API key required.

🇩🇪 Deutsche Version

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Overview

swiss-academic-libraries-mcp connects AI models to the full Swiss academic library infrastructure via standardised, open protocols. It covers the swisscovery union catalogue (500+ libraries, 10M+ records) and three digitalisation platforms: historical prints (e-rara), periodicals (e-periodica) and manuscripts (e-manuscripta).

All data sources use open, authentication-free protocols (SRU/MARC21, OAI-PMH/Dublin Core). The server supports both local use via Claude Desktop (stdio transport) and cloud deployment (Streamable HTTP).

Anchor demo query: "Which Swiss university dissertations on primary school pedagogy are held in Swiss libraries, and are any of them digitised in e-rara?"

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Features

• 11 tools across 4 data sources — all read-only, no API key required
• swisscovery search with full CQL syntax: full-text, title, author, subject, ISBN/ISSN
• OAI-PMH harvesting with date range and collection filters plus pagination via resumption tokens
• MARC21 parser extracting 20+ fields (title, creator, publication info, subjects, abstract, URLs)
• Dublin Core parser for all three digitalisation portals
• Dual transport: stdio for Claude Desktop · Streamable HTTP for cloud/self-hosted deployments
• 2 built-in prompts: research-workflow and education-research
• Markdown and JSON output for all tools
• 34 unit tests (no network) + 6 live smoke tests

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Data Sources

| Source | Protocol | Content | Records | |--------|----------|---------|---------|| | swisscovery (SLSP) | SRU / MARC21 | 500+ Swiss libraries | 10M+ | | e-rara | OAI-PMH / Dublin Core | Digitised historical prints | 250k+ | | e-periodica | OAI-PMH / Dublin Core | Digitised periodicals (1750–today) | 1M+ articles | | e-manuscripta | OAI-PMH / Dublin Core | Manuscripts & archival material | 100k+ |

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Tools

Tool	Source	Function
library_info	—	Entry point: overview of all sources and tools
swisscovery_search	swisscovery	Full-text / CQL search across the union catalogue
swisscovery_get_record	swisscovery	Single record by MMS-ID
erara_list_records	e-rara	Prints filtered by date / collection
erara_get_record	e-rara	Single item by OAI identifier
erara_list_collections	e-rara	All participating libraries
eperiodica_list_records	e-periodica	Articles filtered by date
eperiodica_get_record	e-periodica	Single article by OAI identifier
emanuscripta_list_records	e-manuscripta	Manuscripts filtered by date / collection
emanuscripta_get_record	e-manuscripta	Single object by OAI identifier
emanuscripta_list_collections	e-manuscripta	All archives / collections

Example Use Cases

Query	Tool
"Which books about Swiss primary schools are held in Swiss libraries?"	swisscovery_search
"Show digitised historical works from ETH Library"	erara_list_records
"Which Swiss periodicals were digitised in 2023?"	eperiodica_list_records
"What manuscript collections does e-manuscripta hold?"	emanuscripta_list_collections

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Prerequisites

• Python 3.11 or higher
• uv / uvx (recommended) or pip
• Internet access (all APIs are publicly available)

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Installation

Claude Desktop (recommended)

Add to claude_desktop_config.json:

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "swiss-academic-libraries": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["swiss-academic-libraries-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop — the server starts automatically on first use.

Cloud / Self-hosted (Streamable HTTP)

uvx swiss-academic-libraries-mcp --http --port 8000

Development

git clone https://github.com/malkreide/swiss-academic-libraries-mcp
cd swiss-academic-libraries-mcp
pip install -e .

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Quickstart

Start by calling library_info for a full overview. Then:

"Which books about Swiss primary schools are held in Swiss libraries?"
→ swisscovery_search(query='subject = "Volksschule"', max_records=20)

"Show digitised historical works from ETH Library"
→ erara_list_records(set_spec="zut")

"Which Swiss periodicals were digitised in 2023?"
→ eperiodica_list_records(from_date="2023-01-01", until_date="2023-12-31")

"What manuscript collections does e-manuscripta hold?"
→ emanuscripta_list_collections()

💡 "No API key — just install and query."

CQL Search Syntax (swisscovery)

Full text:     Volksschule Zürich
Title:         title = "education reform"
Author:        creator = "Pestalozzi"
Subject:       subject = "pedagogy"
ISBN:          isbn = "978-3-05-006234-0"
Combined:      title = "school" AND creator = "Pestalozzi"
Pagination:    start_record = 11

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Configuration

No API keys or environment variables required.

Parameter	Default	Description
--http	off	Enable Streamable HTTP transport
--port	8000	Port for HTTP transport

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Project Structure

swiss-academic-libraries-mcp/
├── src/
│   └── swiss_academic_libraries_mcp/
│       ├── __init__.py       # Package init
│       ├── server.py         # FastMCP server, 11 tools, 2 prompts, 1 resource
│       └── api_client.py     # HTTP client, MARC21 + OAI-PMH/DC parsers
├── tests/
│   └── test_server.py        # 34 unit tests + 6 live smoke tests
├── pyproject.toml
├── CHANGELOG.md
├── CONTRIBUTING.md
├── LICENSE
├── README.md                 # This file (English)
└── README.de.md              # German version

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Testing

# Unit tests (no network required)
PYTHONPATH=src pytest tests/ -m "not live"

# Live smoke tests (internet required)
PYTHONPATH=src pytest tests/ -m "live"

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Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please read CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines on:

• Reporting bugs and requesting features
• Setting up the development environment
• Code style and test requirements
• Submitting pull requests

This project follows the conventions of the Swiss Public Data MCP Portfolio.

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Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md

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License

MIT License — see LICENSE

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Author

Hayal Oezkan · github.com/malkreide

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Credits & Related Projects

• Data: swisscovery / SLSP · e-rara · e-periodica · e-manuscripta
• Protocol: Model Context Protocol — Anthropic / Linux Foundation
• Related: eth-library-mcp — ETH Library Discovery & Persons API
• Portfolio: Swiss Public Data MCP Portfolio

Server	Description
zurich-opendata-mcp	City of Zurich Open Data
eth-library-mcp	ETH Library Discovery & Persons API
swiss-statistics-mcp	Swiss Federal Statistics (BFS)
fedlex-mcp	Swiss Federal Law via Fedlex SPARQL
swiss-transport-mcp	OJP journey planning, SIRI-SX disruptions