Version 1; published 17 July 2026.
1. About the API
The MDS Search API lets you query and retrieve museum records from a wide range of institutions. Records come with the licence set by the contributing museum, which may vary (eg, CC0, CC BY, CC BY-NC) and are found in the field “data_use_licence”. (The quickest way to see the various licences used by contributing museums is to use the ‘data use licences’ filter at https://museumdata.uk/object-search.)
2. Using the data
- Always check that only data licensed appropriately for your use case is retrieved. E.g., if your use is commercial, filter out any records licensed under CC BY-NC or similar.
- Give attribution both to the Museum Data Service and the contributing museum. For example: ‘Data courtesy of [Museum] via museumdata.uk. Licensed under [licence]’.
- Where appropriate, include the ‘Using data from MDS’ logo in your outputs, with a hyperlink to museumdata.uk.
3. Fair use of the API
- The API is for interactive search and query, not for bulk downloading of all records (use the Extract API for that).
- Fair use limits: avoid excessive or unnecessary requests that could degrade system performance.
- MDS may adjust limits or temporarily throttle access to ensure stable service for all users.
4. Respecting the data
- Do not remove licence information or attribution.
- Cache limited amounts of data only to improve performance, and refresh regularly to stay up-to-date.
5. Liability
The API is provided ‘as is’. MDS and contributing museums are not responsible for misuse of the data. API users are responsible for compliance with each record’s licence and for lawful use.