Is it porrible to refresh a library entry from a script?

I am wondering if there is an exposed function to refresh a library element - note I am not talking about XBMC.updatelibrary(video, path)...I am talking about essentially the functionality that occurs when you choose 'refresh' in the info window for, say, a movie and then tell it NOT to use the internet - forcing it to reload the NFO file.

Basically, I want to write a script that iterates over the library (there's another question there - I guess I have to use SQL for this)...there don't seem to be many advertised functions for retrieving and manipulating library contents - it would be great if their were JSON functions for this - it seems the only way right now might be SQL and that of course means dealing with sqllite, mysql etc, and potential future breakage - much less nice than an API.