Library Resource Extraction, Processing, and Automation using RPA (UiPath): A Comprehensive Study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.64882/ijrt.v14.i2.1449Keywords:
Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Library Automation, Metadata Extraction, Excel Automation, OPAC, Cataloging, Digital LibrariesAbstract
Library cataloging and metadata management are traditionally labor-intensive, repetitive, and error-prone tasks that consume significant staff time in academic and public libraries worldwide. This paper presents the design, implementation, and performance evaluation of a Robotic Process Automation (RPA) solution developed using UiPath Studio Community Edition to automate the extraction and structured recording of bibliographic metadata. The system reads a list of computing topics from a Microsoft Excel input file (ShoppingList.xlsx), opens the Amazon India website in Google Chrome, searches each topic, scrapes relevant book metadata (title, author, price), and writes the results to a structured Excel output file — one sheet per topic. The workflow comprises seven key components: Read Range, Open Browser, For Each Row in Data Table, Type Into with Send Hotkey, Data Scraping Wizard, Write Range, and Try-Catch error handling. Testing across 15 topics demonstrated an average processing time of 8.7 seconds per topic and a field-level accuracy rate of 96.1%, compared to a manual baseline of 10-15 minutes per topic, representing approximately 98% time reduction. The paper further proposes a conceptual four-layer Intelligent Library Automation framework integrating RPA with Artificial Intelligence (AI), Natural Language Processing (NLP), Machine Learning (ML), RFID, and IoT for next-generation smart library systems.
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