---
title: "View metadata associated with a single record."
method: GET
path: "/records/{record_id}.{format}"
tags: ["API calls"]
---

# View metadata associated with a single record.

`GET /records/{record_id}.{format}`

If you know its `record_id` you can use this endpoint to view all metadata associated with that specific record.

## Path parameters

- `record_id` integer, required
- `format` 'json' | 'xml', required

## Query parameters

- `fields` string

## Headers

- `Authentication-Token` string

## Response `200`

ok

- Record — *NOTE:* There are a lot of fields that are very rarely used in DigitalNZ. For instance there are custom built fields that are only relevant, and only found on specific collections. The schema below focuses on the most common / well populated fields and does not show every possible field available for a single record.
  - `id` integer — All records have a unique identifier used within the DigitalNZ system.
  - `created_at` string, date-time — The date the record was initially harvested into DigitalNZ.
  - `updated_at` string, date-time — The date the record was last updated/re-harvested into DigitalNZ.
  - `title` string — Title of the record. All records should have a title.
  - `description` string — Description of the record. Most records have a description.
  - `content_partner` string[] — Name of the organisation(s), institution(s), or individual(s) making content available through DigitalNZ. This metadata will be present on all records and is usually the name of the organisation that has agreed to the DigitalNZ Metadata Contribution Terms.
  - `display_content_partner` string — The main Content Partner, for cases when there are more than one. This metadata will be present on all records.
  - `display_collection` string — The single main collection or website that the item belongs to. This metadata will be present on all records.
  - `primary_collection` string[] — In most cases this is the same as *display_collection*, but will occasionally a second value.
  - `collection` string[] — In addition to the top level *"display_collection"* above, this field can also contain sub-collections or groupings within the main collection.
  - `collection_title` string[] — For historic reasons this is a duplicate of the previous field ("collection").
  - `category` string[] — There will always be at least 1 human-readable category label in this field.
  - `creator` string[] — The name's of the people, organisations, institutions, services etc. who created the content (eg. the photographer, artist, writer or author).
  - `subject` string[] — Keywords about the content.
  - `dc_identifier` string[] — Identifiers relating to the content from the content partner's system.
  - `date` string[] — Date information associated with this record (e.g. 1996-01-01T00:00:00.000Z). This field may be empty.
  - `display_date` string — Where provided, this field contains a human readable version of the date information.
  - `landing_url` string — This field will always contain a URL of the item on the content partner's website. *Note:* Please use the source_url when providing HTML links.
  - `source_url` string — This URL will always be present and provides a redirect to the landing_url. This link should be used as the main click-through to the content. Passing users through this link allows DNZ to count the number of click-throughs, as well as trigger link-checking activities that help clean up stale links in DigitalNZ.
  - `thumbnail_url` string — URL for a thumbnail image of the content. The size varies depending on what is available but we aim for a width of 250px. This field is mostly populated on records with a 'category' of 'Images', but is also sometimes found on others (eg. "Videos").
  - `large_thumbnail_url` string — URL for a larger thumbnail image with a width of up to 800px. NOTE - the API Terms do not extend rights to the use of images accessable throught the *large_thumbnail_url* field.
  - `usage` string[] — This field is always present and contains human-understandable information about how the item may be used based on its copyright/license.
  - `copyright` string[] — A copyright statement applying to the object referenced by this record. This field may be empty.
  - `rights` string — Rights information. Can be a rights statement explaining the rights of the record or a link to a webpage with more detailed rights information.
  - `rights_url` string[] — An array of HTTP URLs resolving to a rights statement or terms of use information for the resource.
  - `locations` object[] — Geographical location information including latitude and longitude co-ordinates, text based location information, and details about where the location information comes from (eg. "Location provided by Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa")
    - `lat` number
    - `lng` number
    - `placename` string
    - `comment` string — Describes who provided this location metadata.

## Other responses

- `403` — API Key (Authentication-Token) is invalid.
- `404` — Resource not found

---

[API](https://skmtc.dev/swaggerhub/apis/digitalnz-api.md) · [All operations](https://skmtc.dev/swaggerhub/apis/digitalnz-api/llms.txt) · [OpenAPI document](https://skmtc-service-production.skmtc.workers.dev/v1/apis/swaggerhub/digitalnz-api/revisions/74a66ebbc850/schema)