Hi,
The good folks who manage the my church's library have created an Excel database and they would like to see it on the website (uufames.org). Here is a link the person who is helping them provided: http://sites.google.com/site/uufalibrarycardcatalogtest/
As you can see, what this person has done is to export "printouts" of the Excel file that has been sorted in 3 ways. This seems clunky and weird to me, but I am not quite sure how to proceed, so I'm asking your advice.
Here are my assumptions and questions:
I know it is possible to upload the Excel data and create a view (or views).
These view(s) can be set up with several columns that are sortable.
It would be better to begin with as complete a database as possible, then set it up so the library folk can modify it online as items are added to or removed from the collection instead of replacing "printouts."
Now the questions:
What would be the best way to approach this task?
How can these folks keep their Excel database in synch with what is online? (OK, I can hear you now saying, why not just use Drupal. . . and the answer is I don't know. I'm reluctant to suggest this because of my experience with the Drupal learning curve, but if it's a matter of my setting it up and training them, I'd be interested in this possibility).
Is there a module for this already? I've looked, but most of what I've found seems to indicate that this kind of thing combines several modules I know about--CCK, views, taxonomy--but also some I've never heard of: createfromweb, bookpost, library. Do you know anything about these?
Thanks in advance,
Chris
who encourages you to come to the workshop on 6 Feb!
Comments
Step-by-step: 0.) Ensure your
Step-by-step:
0.) Ensure your Excel sheet has a unique identifier column. ISBN would do, or you can use your own incremented ID.
1.) Use CCK to Create a node type with fields representing each column in your Excel sheet
2.) Use Views module to create a view of these nodes.
3.) Use Feed Module to import you spreadsheet, creating a map of columns to CCK fields. By specifying the unique identifier column, you should be able to update existing nodes on future imports. You may need to save as CSV format; I can't remember if Feed supports XLS directly. Probably not.
Hope that helps,
Matt
Drupal.org user profile
Drupal Micro-blogging: http://twitter.com/matt2000
Hi Matt, Thank you so much
Hi Matt,
Thank you so much for this post. I am brand new to Drupal and site building in general, and I have given myself the (daunting!) task of creating a simple OPAC for a small art museum library's collection. The existing "catalog" is an excel spreadsheet compiled by a volunteer cataloger that (for some UNKNOWN reason) did not include the ISBNS. Would it be possible to use the LC Call number as the "unique identifier column"? Will there be character restrictions? Thank you for any advice you can offer. I'm literally starting from "ok, so i just installed Drupal.."
Thanks so much,
leah.
Biblio Module
Be sure to check out the biblio module. It's not exactly an OPAC, but it might be able to get you 90% of the way there with 10% of the effort of building it yourself.
There is a live demo here. Note how you can sort and filter by publication, year, author, etc etc. Pretty snazzy.
Thanks so much Scott! I have
Thanks so much Scott!
I have been working to get my records cleaned up in Excel, imported to EndNote, then exported/imported to Biblio module. I think it will be a much better route than trying to get them all into MySQL (choking nightmare!) and then migrating them to a new content type. Unfortunately, I don't know how I will create an adequate user search interface for the OPAC using only Biblio. (I still haven't even figured out how to display the fields I want in the reference type haha) Do you know of a way to configure Biblio in Views or does it map to CCK?
Check out Node Import module
Hi
Check out node import module - allows you to import a set of nodes from a Comma Seperated Values (CSV) or Tab Seperated Values (TSV) text file. I have used it, and it works real slick once you figure out how to setup the our file correctly. I used it import data for e-commerce site.
Also, I would just do it all in Drupal, you can then set up different views to show the data how you like once you have the data entered. However, you may first want to determine how is going to be use? Just to see which books there are, if available, check books, etc.
Hope this helps,
Pam
Look into the Amazon modules, too
Chris, for down the road, take a look at the Amazon modules, too. Here's my thinking: When you put this list on the Web, you're making the titles available to the world. Not everyone can get to Ames to borrow a book from you, but everybody can order from Amazon. In other words, if the fact that the book is in your library makes your audience more likely to want to read it, you could have the entry for that book linked to Amazon for their convenience. If they order the book from Amazon by following your link, your church will get a commission — or, as one website puts it, "a minuscule share of the profits" — but it costs your church nothing, costs the person ordering the book nothing, and could produce a small stream of income with little effort.
It's not for every church, but it's worth considering.
And I'm looking into a Drupal solution for our church's library, too, so I would be interested in comparing notes.
If it were me, I'd try hard
If it were me, I'd try hard to not maintain two versions of the same database. At some point, somebody is going to change the columns or something and mess up the import. Plus, just having to import the spreadsheet on a regular basis will be a pain. Eventually, they'll just stop doing it all together.
I'd do a one-time import and have them keep all the records in Drupal. You sound reluctant, but you don't have to do it right away. Set everything up as a test, have them try it out for a while (keeping up the excel version during this time), then then do it for real when everybody is comfortable.
I've used the node import module before with success.
And I really like Cliff's idea! I'm pretty sure that you can set something up where you ONLY enter the ISBN numbers of the books and Drupal can pull all product descriptions, book covers, and reviews from Amazon.com. Very handy!
Agreed!
I wholeheartedly agree with Scott. The big picture should be to have everything maintained using Drupal. One time import, then maintain using web interface.
If your not going to do that, then I'd simply attach the Excel file to a node for people to download.
Why not use LibraryThing?
On our church website we just posted a link to LibraryThing. It's easy, extremely functional, and cataloguing is a snap with their database access to LOC, Amazon, etc. It's working beautifully at our church.
I'm all in favor of using Drupal whenever it's the best solution, but honestly, in this workflow, it seems like LibraryThing is probably the best way to go.
Our church has found LibraryThing to be less than optimal
Our most dedicated library volunteer went to great lengths to compile the information from our card catalog directly into LibraryThing. It's a shame that she worked so hard on it, because the result has turned out to be incredibly confusing. It isn't clear to the average user what LibraryThing is. They don't understand why they can't buy the book with a click of the mouse. Also, because LibraryThing lets them search all libraries, they end up finding books that we don't have and then being frustrated when they come to the church and find out that we never did have that book. Or they find a book that they don;t think is appropriate for a church and come in steamed that such a thing would be on the shelves.
LibraryThing has also been hard for people who know what it is to search. It hasn't let us organize the content in ways that make sense to us. It doesn't let us create the display we have found would work best for our audiences. And helping figure out what little people could expect from it took quite a bit of valuable time I would have liked to have dedicated to the Drupal learning curve instead.
If confusion and frustration floats your boat, go for it. But if you would rather be able to customize the presentation to meet your church's needs, I wouldn't touch LibraryThing with a 10-gigameter pole.
We use OpenBiblio at my
We use OpenBiblio at my daughters school (Midewestern Christian Academy). Find it at http://obiblio.sourceforge.net . You can add the Library of Congress lookup functionality with locsru at http://obiblio.sourceforge.net/index.php/Main/AddOns
It has an OPAC at http://library.mcacougars.org/opac (online public access catalog) for searching.
We just got a cheap handheld scanner that expedites data entry for those books that have isbn barcodes for lookup through the loc add-on. The loc add-on returns all MARC info and populates all the database fields so that you only have to add a call number (we use the loc lookup number returned from the lookup, just copy and paste). One of our retired teacher aides has volunteered to do the data entry, woo hoo! The scanner should make make that go (relatively) fast.
Alan McColl
http://whizzbangcomputerservices.com
Web Design | Computer Repair | Data Recovery - Migration | Virus Removal
Thank you so much. I want to
Thank you so much. I want to get a isbn bar code control in excel, but I only find code 128 creator for excel.
Do you have any good ideas on it?
Your help will be appreciated.
Best regards.
Mica Gordon
Alternative solution
Hi,
you can use www.dbTube.org to import your Excel sheets into drupal.
Greetings
and another idea
Hi,
for a flexible personal database you can use Bento from Filemaker. IMport, Export...easy.
Or if you doesnt have a Apple/Mac you can use verside.org. Same concept - but web based.
Greetings