Make an HTML document out of a spreadsheet of new books

• This script was developed to solve a specific problem faced by our librarians: how to turn a spreadsheet of new books into an HTML document quickly and easily.
• Because our acquisitions librarian needed to be do this regularly, coding the HTML by hand was not a viable option.
• So the script we wrote automatically produces an HTML output from a CSV file. This HTML is suitable for cutting and pasting into a LibGuide.

To use the script

These instructions assume you already have the following installed: git, python 3, pipenv

To set up the converter at the command line (you only need to do this part once):

$ git clone https://github.com/markeeaton/new-books   # this will clone the github repository to your machine
$ cd new-books   # go to the repository directory
$ pipenv install   # to get the necessary packages

Then you should have your input spreadsheet organized as follows:

A	B	C	D
LC Class	Author	Title	Call Number
...	...	...	...

• Be sure to include a row with column headers!
• The data goes below.
• Save it as a CSV file. Place it in the new-books/data/ directory.

Once that's set up, you can use the convert script by replacing input.csv and output.html in this command with your own filenames:

$ pipenv run python convert.py input.csv output.html

The output file will be in the data/ directory.

Want to run a desktop version?

Use the gooey branch of this repository. Then follow the packaging instructions at the Gooey page.

Want to see more?

Presented as a poster "Improving Workflows and Outreach with Python: Automating a New Books LibGuide" at ACRL 2019 in Cleveland, OH