Integrating Babelio book ratings and reviews on Primo: a case study

Abstract

Renouvaud is a network of 150 academic, research, school, and public libraries in Western Switzerland. In 2024, it integrated data from the French-language social book recommendation service Babelio. As there are very few public libraries using Primo, particularly in a French-language context, this was the first instance of Babelio being deployed on Primo. Existing ways to integrate the service to library catalogues were not compatible with Primo. I was engaged as a developer to build this integration using the Primo development environment. This required collaborating with the vendor on the development of an API for integrating their data and with the Renouvaud member libraries, balancing the needs of diverse institutions within the network while keeping ease of use and end-user engagement at the forefront. This presentation was delivered at the IGeLU Developers Day on September 18, 2025 in Siena, Italy.