libofcongress_get_item
Retrieve full metadata for a specific LOC item — contributors, subjects, summary, languages, locations, rights, physical description, call number, formats, access restrictions, resource links (TIFF/JPEG/PDF), and related items.
How to use it
Project documentation lists libofcongress_get_item for the Libofcongress MCP Server MCP server. Add the server to your MCP client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf and others), then check which tools your installed version makes available. Tool availability can depend on configuration and credentials. A server handshake does not verify this tool’s behavior. See the full listing for setup details.
Install Libofcongress MCP Server
docker run --rm -p 3010:3010 libofcongress-mcp-serverOther tools in Libofcongress MCP Server (5)
List and browse LOC curated digital collections with descriptions, item counts, and slugs. Optionally filter by keyword.
Retrieve the full OCR text of a specific newspaper page. Pass the url field from a libofcongresssearchnewspapers result. Returns ocravailable: false when the page has no digitized text.
Search LOC digital collections by keyword with optional format, date range, subject heading, geographic location, and collection filters. Returns item summaries with IDs for follow-up retrieval.
Search historical newspaper pages in the Chronicling America corpus. Returns pages with OCR text excerpts (~500 chars), publication title, date, state, and the URL needed for libofcongressgetnewspaperpage.
Search Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) by keyword. Returns controlled-vocabulary labels and URIs — use the label as the subject filter in libofcongresssearch.