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Louisiana Textbook Insecurity Project

SI 485 | Sydney Peters • Joleen Powers • Will Minck

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Project Description and Goal

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Client: LOUIS, a consortium of forty-seven public & private colleges/universities in Louisiana

Goal: Produce tool that automates our client’s interactivity with textbook adoption report data; bolster LOUIS’ mission of providing cost-effective resources & technology students

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Approach/Methods

Data

Textbook adoption metadata via Board of Regents, individual files in CSV/Excel format per campus bookstore w/ required resources (ISBNs in a variety of formats), ROI dataset w/ campus-specific savings

Software Solutions

  • ISBN Conversion Tool
  • Search Tool

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Approach/Methods (cont.)

  1. ISBN Conversion Tool: Python script to scrape and standardize varied ISBN formats retrieved from bookstore lists; to be fed into search tool to process textbook adoption lists from each participating LOUIS campus
    1. Supports wide variety of file types provided by LOUIS institutions
    2. For all file types & formats considered fully supported, all ISBN numbers from those files can be successfully extracted
  2. Search Tool: Utilize the EDS/EBSCO API to search for a desired textbook (via ISBN or keyword search) and its purchasing options

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Results

  • ISBN Conversion Tool: Completed script to extract ISBN numbers from most Excel file types
    • Tailored tool to extract associated Course IDs with ISBN numbers
    • Challenging due to high variability of file types and formats
      1. 1,008+ character Regular Expression for ISBNs
    • Implemented file storage process for extracted results

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Examples of File Data

ISBNs (textbooks) available for adoption are tied to corresponding courses at LOUIS institutions

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Results (cont.)

  • Main Search Tool:
    • Fixed bugs for integer-based ISBN search
    • Final code uploaded to GitHub for use by LOUIS team
    • README updated; enables LOUIS technician to create necessary virtual environment to run program

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Main Search Tool Output

LOUIS team can interact with search tool to locate most affordable student option(s)

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Lasting Value

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  1. Final Deliverable: Merged ISBN Conversion Tool and Search Tool
    1. Developed detailed installation guide via README document to ensure future use, successful troubleshooting, and continued development for client after pass-off

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Lasting Value (cont.)

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  • Our MVP eliminates time-consuming manual work that LOUIS was forced to carry out before our tool could consolidate and automate steps
    • LOUIS will now have more time to devote to, for example, pulling more glamorous points from our tool’s output to demonstrate their impact
      1. e.g., Savings per Student, Savings per Course, Most Expensive Textbook Offset with Library Purchase
    • Demonstrating ROI is of utmost importance; will be more easily accomplished now that tools have been integrated and optimized for future improvement/development

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Thank You!

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