How to Import Google Books Data to Airtable

In this easy-to-follow guide, we'll learn how to import data from Google Books into Airtable using the free Data Fetcher Airtable extension. For a list of book ISBNs, we'll import book details like 'Title', 'Description', 'Authors' and 'Published date' into Airtable. This can all be done without the need for code using the Google Books Airtable integration.

Create Output Table

Create a table in your base called 'Books' with a (single line text) field called 'ISBN' and another a (single line text) filed called 'Title.'

Populate the fields with the ISBNs of the books you want to import data into Airtable for.

Create a Grid view in your table called 'Needs info' with the following filters:

'ISBN' is not empty and 'Title' is empty.

Install Data Fetcher

Install Data Fetcher from the Airtable marketplace. Either sign up for a free Data Fetcher account or if you already have an account, sign in using the 'Have an account?' option in the bottom left of the box.

Import Google Books Data into Airtable

On the home screen of the Data Fetcher extension click 'Create your first request'. Requests enable you to import or send data to and from Airtable using Data Fetcher. You can create multiple requests for each Airtable base although you can only add one extension per base on the Airtable Free plan.

On the create request screen in Data Fetcher, for Application, select 'Google Books'.

For Endpoint, select 'Search volumes by title/author/ISBN'.

Enter a Name for your request, e.g. 'Import Book Data '. Then click 'Save & Continue'.

Make sure the Output table & View are set to your 'Books' table and 'Needs info' view.

You need to select at least one option in order to reference the data you want to import from Google Books.

You can use either the Title (to fetch results based on the book title), ISBN (to fetch results based on book ISBN), Author (to fetch results based on book author) or Publisher (to fetch results based on book publisher).

For this example, we will use ISBN so click the + button in order to create a reference to our 'Books' output table.

A new window will open to set a reference to a table or a variable. For Table, select 'Books' and Field select 'ISBN'. For Run every record select 'Needs info'.

Click 'Confirm'.

The 'ISBN' now has a table reference to our ISBN Airtable field.

Click 'Save & Run'.

Data Fetcher will send the request to Google Books and the Response field mapping window will open. Here you set which fields to import from Google Books and how they map to your selected output table. For an imported field, you can also set whether to map to an existing field or create a new one and set the field type.

Use the 'Filter all' button to clear the pre-selected fields, then use the 'Find field' search bar to choose the fields you would like to import. For this example, we will import the 'Title', 'Description', 'Authors' and 'Published date' fields. 

Click 'Save & Run'.

Data Fetcher will now create any new fields in the output table and run the request to retrieve the Google Books data then populate the Airtable 'Books' table.

Automatic Google Books Airtable Integration

At the moment, we have to manually run the request to import the data from Google Books but by using Data Fetcher's scheduled Google Books Airtable integration we can automatically import this information every 15 minutes/ hour/ day etc.

In Data Fetcher, scroll to Schedule and click 'Upgrade'.

A new tab will open where you can select a plan and enter your payment details to upgrade.

Return to the Data Fetcher extension and click 'I've done this'.

Under Schedule click '+ Authorize'.

Next, you'll see a new window where you'll be prompted to authorize which Airtable bases you want Data Fetcher to have access to.

It's recommended to select 'All current and future bases in all current and future workspaces' which will avoid having to authorize other bases in the future.

Click 'Grant access'.

In Data Fetcher, you'll now see Schedule this request is toggled on.

Select intervals of either 'Minutes', 'Hours', 'Days' or 'Months' depending on how often you want the Google Books Airtable integration to run. Click 'Save', and your requested Google Books data be automatically pulled in based on your specified schedule.