Taking Patrons Behind The Curtain: Introducing Researchers To Apis

APIs, or application programming interfaces, are tools that let computers communicate with each other to perform CRUD (create, read, update, and delete) operations, including data collection. Users can take advantage of APIs to capture information systemically from the web, in ways that would be difficult or impossible to do from just a website. In their roles within a digital scholarship center, the presenters often interact with patrons across disciplines who would benefit from interacting with open source and library-licensed APIs, but the terminology and tools are often pitched at “insiders” and can seem a formidable barrier of entry to research end-users.

In the Fall 2025 semester, the presenters developed and co-taught a new hour-long library workshop titled “Gathering Data from the Web Using APIs.” Assuming a beginner audience, the workshop defines APIs and related terminology, including endpoints, JSON, acceptable usage, and HTTP request methods. The presenters lead participants in practicing using the basic tools and methods of APIs to gather data from various fields of interest, including sports and art, before showcasing scripts they developed in R and Python to demonstrate what researchers might do with such systematically captured data. Workshop materials are provided via an open GitHub repository that is designed to be referenced and revisited by workshop participants to aid in long-term learning retention.

This session will begin with an abbreviated version of the workshop (approximately 40 minutes), which will be useful to both attendees who are interested in teaching API usage at their institutions and those for whom APIs are an unfamiliar concept. We will conclude with a brief (approximately 20 minutes) conversation on pedagogical approach and teaching experiences to date. Workshop materials will be shared with participants, who may reuse and adapt them to their own needs and contexts.