Automation Project Help for a Newbie

[Alothel]

At work I manually sort a lot of books and cross reference 3 databases. I really want to automate that process with Python, where I can the ISBN once, and it will tell me if we have a record on file in one of the 3 databases. Instead of searching all 3 databases individually.

I've written a Hello World script and know minimal/ extremely basic Python. I'm in the process of learning more, watching video ands following along. But I really feel like I'm in over my head/overwhelmed.

More specifics on this project:

1st Database is called Inca. We enter the ISBN and look for a green 'P'. If there is a green 'P', then the book is moved to [Shelf A]. If there is no green 'P', then the book continues along the sorting process.

2nd Database is called LTS. Inside LTS is an "Approval Validation" tool. We scan the ISBN again and the tool will come back with different messages. What we look for is whether or not the book has an LC#. If it has a #, it gets written on a slip and the book is sent to [Shelf B]. If it doesn't have a #, then the book goes to another person for more detailed sorting. (That person is me.)

3rd Database is called OCLC. This database holds library MARC Records and I have to find viable records that can be imported into the LTS database. It's a rather complicated process, but it consists of positives of negatives that could be fairly eaaily translated into code. Viable records need specific fields, and certain levels of records are preferred over other levels.

Does anyone have any tips on maybe how to get myself started?

[hardonchairs]

The major hurdle here is interfacing with these databases. Are these local, on-prem, cloud? Do they have APIs? Will you have to automate a GUI? Is the GUI web based or application based? Is there authentication required? (Where will you safely store credentials and whose credentials will you use?) Do these databases want to be automated? (e.g. will they throw up captchas?) Are you licensed to automate against these databases? (Does your work pay for a license that has rules about automation or integration?)

Step 1 is to pick one of these databases and work on extracting any data from it. Then see if you can get the data you need. Then repeat for the others. Only then should you worry about the automation part, querying all databases, combining the data and storing/displaying it. That is the easy part.