This method returns the set of collection items matching the given criteria.
Arguments
item_type(Optional)- Optionally select only records of a given type. Valid values: object, artist, exhibition.
keyword(Optional)- The term to search for (e.g., "Eames").
date_range_begin(Optional)- Match items with a year equal to or greater than supplied value. Must also provide date_range_end. Integer.
date_range_end(Optional)- Match items with a year equal to or less than supplied value. Must also provide date_range_begin. Integer.
name(Optional)- Match items with a name/title that matches the supplied value.
collection_id(Optional)- Restrict search by numeric collection id (obtained from collection.getCollections). Note that this parameter has no effect on exhibition results.
start_index(Optional)- An integer indicating where to begin the query. If 0 is given, the query will return the top most relevant items. If 10 is given, the response will contain items 10 through 10+results_limit. If start_index exceeds the number of results identified by the query, no results will be returned. An integer greater than or equal to 0
results_limit(Optional)- An integer representing the maximum number of results to return. An integer between 1 and 20 inclusive. Default 20.
require_image(Optional)- Set to true to filter out object and exhibition results that don't have an image. Boolean. Default True.
sort_field(Optional)- Specifies the field to sort the results by. Valid values: relevance, name, date. Default relevance.
sort_direction(Optional)- Specifies the direction to sort results by. If not specified the default direction for the current sort_field is chosen (e.g. relevance is sorted descending by default, name is sorted ascending, date is sorted descending). Use this parameter to override the default. Valid values: ascending, descending.
Inherited Arguments
api_key(Required)- Your personal API Key.
version(Required)- The API version you want to use. Integer. Valid values: 1.
format(Optional)- The response format. Valid values: xml, json, html. Default xml.
include_html_style_block(Optional)- Only applies to requests where format is html. Specifies whether or not to include a standard STYLE block with returned HTML content. The STYLE block dresses up the otherwise drab HTML. If you prefer to style the returned HTML yourself set this parameter to false. Boolean. Default True.
include_image_caption(Optional)- Specifies whether or not to include preformatted item captions in the response. Boolean.
include_item_fields(Optional)- Specifies whether or not to include lots of extra data about the item (e.g., medium, classification, credit, etc.). If you set this param to false note that you must display minimal fields when using Brooklyn Museum images. Boolean. Default True.
thumb_shape(Optional)- Specify "square" to retrieve thumbs that have been cropped to perfect squares Valid values: original, square. Default original.
max_thumb_size(Optional)- Specifies the maximum thumb size. (Size of longest dimension in pixels.) Note that the relevant values depend on the thumb_shape used. If you specify square thumbs your options are 50 and 150. Otherwise your options are 96 and 192. Valid values: 50, 96, 150, 192. Default 96.
max_image_size(Optional)- Specifies the maximum image size to return. Note that copyright restrictions sometimes prevent us from providing a large derivative. When that's the case, an image returned may be considerably smaller than the max you specify. Valid values: 384, 500. Default 384.
Response
A successful invocation of Collection.search returns a RESPONSE envelope and a single RESULTSET element.
Example
Try changing the values below to modify the service URL. Click "Call" to see the result. See this example app for a full implementation of this method.
Errors
- 104: Invalid item_type
- The item_type parameter was invalid
- 1001: Missing parameter
- A required param was missing (e.g., api_key, method)
FAQ

Eastern Parkway/Brooklyn Museum