How APIs Help Bring Your Collections to Life
Museums and archives have always told stories, but today those stories increasingly live in digital networks. Collections are rarely confined to a single system. Artworks, archival records, and related assets often exist across websites, DAMs, or other information repositories. APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) are the bridge that allows these systems to talk to each other, and Qi is built to make those connections both seamless and meaningful.
Qi’s API Capabilities
Qi uses REST API, a widely adopted standard that allows secure communication between systems using simple HTTPS requests and structured formats (JSON), making it easy to retrieve, create, or update records. Combined with Elasticsearch indexing, the API supports advanced querying and filtering, enabling collections data to be surfaced across websites, mobile apps, or other institutional systems. Qi also integrates with Linked Open Data (LOD) authorities such as AAT, Geonames, VIAF, Wikidata, and the Library of Congress, ensuring metadata remains consistent and compatible, and with leading Digital Asset Management (DAM) systems - including NetX, Orange Logic, Adobe Experience Manager, and ResourceSpace - allowing synchronised management of media assets and metadata across platforms.
Turning Data Into Stories
The power of these connections goes beyond simple access. By centralising metadata and supporting relationships between objects, people, places, and events, Qi turns individual records into a web of context. Developers can use the API to pull only the data they need, while curators retain control over how the collection is presented and interpreted. This makes collections more discoverable, interactive, and interconnected.
Effortless Integration
Integration with Qi does not require complex workarounds or proprietary code. The system supports standard REST endpoints, JSON output out of the box, and (optionally) Elasticsearch, meaning it can interface with other databases, websites, or analytics platforms. Qi’s APIs also respect the integrity of metadata: hierarchical relationships, controlled vocabularies, and linked authorities remain consistent, ensuring that data remains meaningful no matter where it travels.
APIs and the Future of Heritage
Qi’s API enables museums and archives to tell richer stories, to integrate disparate systems, and to make collections discoverable across platforms, all while preserving the structure, context, and authority that make cultural data trustworthy and accessible for the long term.