Harvard University

aid: harvard
name: Harvard University
description: >-
  Harvard University (Cambridge, MA; founded 1636; QS World 2025 #4) maintains
  a substantial public developer footprint spread across several units. Its
  most prominent fully public, key-based APIs are the Harvard Art Museums API
  and the Harvard Library LibraryCloud / Open Metadata API, both serving open
  collections data. Harvard University Information Technology (HUIT) operates a
  central API Portal (HarvardKey-gated) cataloging administrative APIs
  (Courses, Person, Dining, Zoom, Library Catalog), and the DASH institutional
  repository exposes an open OAI-PMH metadata feed.
type: Index
position: Consumer
access: 3rd-Party
image: https://kinlane-productions.s3.amazonaws.com/apis-json/apis-json-logo.jpg
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/harvard/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
tags:
  - Education
  - Higher Education
  - University
  - Research
  - Libraries
  - Museums
  - Open Metadata
  - OAI-PMH
created: '2026-06-03'
modified: '2026-06-03'
specificationVersion: '0.19'
apis:
  - aid: harvard:art-museums
    name: Harvard Art Museums API
    description: >-
      REST/JSON API to the Harvard Art Museums' collections data across 21
      resources (Object, Person, Exhibition, Publication, Gallery,
      Classification, Culture, Medium, Period, Place, Image, and more), with
      pagination, aggregations, and IIIF image services. Free for
      non-commercial use; requires an API key.
    humanURL: https://github.com/harvardartmuseums/api-docs
    baseURL: https://api.harvardartmuseums.org
    tags:
      - Museums
      - Art
      - Collections
      - Cultural Heritage
      - IIIF
    properties:
      - type: Documentation
        url: https://github.com/harvardartmuseums/api-docs
      - type: SignUp
        url: https://harvardartmuseums.org/collections/api
      - type: GitHub
        url: https://github.com/harvardartmuseums
  - aid: harvard:librarycloud
    name: Harvard Library LibraryCloud API (Open Metadata)
    description: >-
      Open metadata hub aggregating Harvard bibliographic metadata (12.7M+ bib
      records, image records, ArchivesSpace finding aids). The public Item API
      returns normalized MODS or Dublin Core; a Collections API is also
      available. No API key required for the public Item API.
    humanURL: https://library.harvard.edu/services-tools/harvard-library-apis-datasets
    baseURL: https://api.lib.harvard.edu/v2/items.json
    tags:
      - Libraries
      - Open Metadata
      - Bibliographic
      - MODS
      - Dublin Core
    properties:
      - type: Documentation
        url: https://library.harvard.edu/services-tools/harvard-library-apis-datasets
      - type: GitHub
        url: https://github.com/harvard-library/librarycloud
  - aid: harvard:dash
    name: Harvard DASH OAI-PMH
    description: >-
      OAI-PMH 2.0 metadata harvesting endpoint for DASH (Digital Access to
      Scholarship at Harvard), the open-access institutional repository of
      58,000+ scholarly works. Open, no key required.
    humanURL: https://library.harvard.edu/services-tools/dash
    baseURL: https://dash.harvard.edu/server/oai/request
    tags:
      - Repository
      - Open Access
      - OAI-PMH
      - Scholarship
    properties:
      - type: Documentation
        url: https://library.harvard.edu/services-tools/dash
      - type: Website
        url: https://dash.harvard.edu/home
  - aid: harvard:api-portal
    name: Harvard API Portal (HUIT)
    description: >-
      HUIT's central catalog of administrative APIs — Courses, Person Data
      Service, Library Catalog (Ex Libris Primo), Dining, HR Departments,
      Zoom, Emailer, and Generative AI APIs. OpenAPI specs are viewable in the
      portal; base URLs are gated behind HarvardKey login, app registration,
      and per-API access grant.
    humanURL: https://portal.apis.huit.harvard.edu/apis
    tags:
      - Courses
      - Identity
      - Administrative
      - OpenAPI
    properties:
      - type: Documentation
        url: https://portal.apis.huit.harvard.edu/apis
      - type: SignUp
        url: https://portal.apis.huit.harvard.edu/
      - type: DeveloperPortal
        url: https://data.harvard.edu/apis
common:
  - type: Website
    url: https://www.harvard.edu/
  - type: DeveloperPortal
    url: https://data.harvard.edu/developers
  - type: GitHub
    url: https://github.com/harvard
  - type: Status
    url: https://status.huit.harvard.edu/
  - type: Twitter
    url: https://twitter.com/Harvard
  - type: LinkedIn
    url: https://www.linkedin.com/school/harvard-university/
  - type: Plans
    url: plans/harvard-plans-pricing.yml
  - type: RateLimits
    url: rate-limits/harvard-rate-limits.yml
  - type: FinOps
    url: finops/harvard-finops.yml
  - type: Review
    url: review.yml
maintainers:
  - FN: Kin Lane
    email: [email protected]