n8n Workflow: Clean Library Catalogs with Google Books & Gmail

Clean up messy library catalogs automatically—upload an Excel file and get a verified, deduplicated master Google Sheets catalog (with an emailed import summary).

This n8n workflow ingests an uploaded .xlsx library inventory, validates and normalizes ISBN-10/ISBN-13, enriches missing book metadata using Google Books API, deduplicates against your existing Google Sheets catalog, and routes exceptions for manual review. It then upserts clean records into your “Clean Master DB” sheet and emails a run summary via Gmail.

What this workflow does

• Receives an HTTP POST webhook containing an uploaded .xlsx file.
• Validates and parses the spreadsheet, loads existing entries from Google Sheets, and initializes an in-memory “seen” set for deduplication.
• Processes rows in batches of 50, cleaning ISBNs and flagging invalid or missing ISBNs for manual review.
• Detects duplicates (by ISBN or normalized title/author) and writes duplicate entries to the “Needs Manual Review” tab with the reason.
• Enriches non-duplicates by calling the Google Books API by ISBN, normalizing fields like title, author, publisher, year, and category (falling back to spreadsheet values when metadata is missing).
• Upserts standardized records into “Clean Master DB” and appends metadata lookup failures to “Needs Manual Review.”
• Sends an import summary email via Gmail with run-level counts (updated, duplicates, missing/invalid ISBN, errors, and manual review).

Use cases

• Bulk importing library or collection inventories from spreadsheets into a clean, deduplicated catalog.
• Automating ISBN validation and Google Books enrichment while keeping exceptions in a review queue.
• Reducing manual catalog cleanup work for SaaS operators, librarians, and automation engineers.

Technical details

• Webhook (HTTP POST) for file upload
• Nodes: if, code, no op, wait, gmail, webhook
• Google Books API enrichment by ISBN
• Google Sheets reads/writes to “Clean Master DB” and “Needs Manual Review”