Recently, I’ve come across many Notion templates for creating bookshelves and tracking reading progress. However, the vast majority of these templates require extensive manual data entry for book information—after all, a single book can have numerous details that need to be recorded, and errors are all too common during manual input. This, in turn, increases the overall cost of using Notion. Lately, I’ve been pondering how to maximize the amount of book information retrieved in Notion with minimal manual entry.

For readers and book collectors, maintaining an up-to-date bookshelf can be time-consuming—until you automate it. Imagine simply entering an ISBN into Notion, and then watching as your bookshelf instantly updates with the latest details, including the book’s title, author, cover image, and publication date. In this guide, I’ll walk you through how to achieve this seamless integration using Notion’s API, MAKE (formerly Integromat), and the Google Books API.

Why Automate Your Bookshelf?

Manually updating your book collection is not only tedious but also prone to errors. Automation offers several benefits:

• Efficiency: Save time by letting automation do the heavy lifting.
• Accuracy: Reduce human errors by retrieving verified book information directly from Google.
• Scalability: Easily manage hundreds of books without extra manual effort.
• Enhanced Productivity: Focus on reading and analysis rather than data entry.

Tools or API We Need

The automation workflow consists of four key tools or API:

1. Notion Database: Your digital bookshelf where you store book data such as ISBN, title, author, publication date, and cover image.
2. Google Books API: Provides comprehensive book details when queried with an ISBN.Here I prefer to use Google Book API.
3. MAKE Automation Platform: Acts as the glue that connects Notion and Google Books API by triggering, fetching, and updating processes automatically.
4. Notion API: Build connection with MAKE.

Step 1: Setting Up Your Notion Bookshelf

Create Your Book Database

• Design the Book Database:
  In Notion, create a new database (e.g., “My Bookshelf”) with the following properties(create properties you need or refer to Google Book API properties):
  • ISBN (Text): To store the ISBN number.
  • Title (Title): To display the book title.
  • Author (Text or Multi-select): To list the author(s).
  • Publication Date (Date): For the release date.
  • Cover Image (URL): To store the link to the book’s cover.
  • Description (Rich Text): Optional field for book summaries or notes.

Create and Share an Integration

• Notion Integration:
  Head to Notion’s Integration page and create a new integration (e.g., “Book Database”). Get Internal Integration Secret.Ensure that you grant it read and update permissions.
• Share the Database:
  In your Notion,Click”…” and choose “Connections” and Share your “Book Database” database with the newly created integration so it can perform updates automatically.

Step 2: Configuring the Google Books API

Google Books API is a free and powerful tool to fetch global book data. You don’t need an API key for basic usage(but I prefer you can apply a API key to build this process), and the request URL format is straightforward:

• Constructing the Query URL:
  Use the following format to fetch book details by ISBN:bashCopyEdit https://www.googleapis.com/books/v1/volumes?q=isbn:{ISBN} Replace {ISBN} with the actual ISBN value from your Notion database.
• Constructing the Query URL with your Google API key:
  https://www.googleapis.com/books/v1/volumes?q=isbn:{ISBN}&key={key} Replace {ISBN} with the actual ISBN value from your Notion database.Replace {key} you apply from Google Book API.

Step 3: Building the Automation with MAKE

Setting Up the Trigger

• Search for New Items:
  In MAKE, create a new scenario and add the Notion module “Search Database Items.” Configure it to monitor your “Book Database” database for new records where the ISBN field is filled but other book details are still empty.
• And you should build a filter if you need. e.g. when data is empty,set status “Start”,then we can select status with “start” data item to update book data.

Fetching Book Data

• HTTP Request Module:
  Add an HTTP module configured to send a GET request to the Google Books API. Use variable mapping to dynamically insert the ISBN from your Notion record into the URL. For example:bashCopyEdit https://www.googleapis.com/books/v1/volumes?q=isbn:{ISBN}
• Parsing the Response:
  Since the API returns data in JSON format, add a JSON parsing module to extract the necessary fields:
  • Title: Typically found in volumeInfo.title
  • Author(s): Found in volumeInfo.authors
  • Publication Date: In volumeInfo.publishedDate
  • Cover Image URL: Usually in volumeInfo.imageLinks.thumbnail

Updating Notion

• Update Module:
  Finally, add the Notion module “Update a Database Item” to write the fetched data back into the corresponding record. Map each field from the API response to your Notion database properties (e.g., update the Title, Author, Publication Date, and Cover Image fields).

Step 4: Testing and Launching Your Automation

Before going live:

• Test Thoroughly:
  Create a few test records in Notion with different ISBNs. Verify that the scenario triggers correctly, retrieves accurate data from Google Books API, and updates your Notion database as expected.
• Troubleshoot Errors:
  Monitor any errors reported by MAKE. Common issues include misconfigured variable mappings or API response changes. Adjust your scenario accordingly.
• Activate the Scenario:
  Once testing is successful, activate the scenario. Now, every time you add a new ISBN to your bookshelf in Notion, the system will automatically update it with complete book information.

Conclusion

Integrating Notion, MAKE, and Google Books API creates a powerful, automated solution for managing your personal bookshelf. This workflow not only saves time but also ensures that your book collection is accurate and up-to-date with minimal manual effort. By leveraging these modern tools, you can streamline your reading management process and focus more on what truly matters—your reading and learning.