Using Low Code to Automate Public Service Workflows: Three Cases

• Main Authors: Dianna Morganti, Jess Williams
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Code4Lib 2021-09-01
• Series: Code4Lib Journal
• Online Access: https://journal.code4lib.org/articles/16096

Public service librarians without coding experience or technical education may not always be aware of or consider automation to be an option to streamline their regular work tasks, but the new prevalence of enterprise-level low code solutions allows novices to take advantage of technology to make their work more efficient and effective. Low code applications apply a graphic user interface on top of a coding platform to make it easy for novices to leverage automation at work. This paper presents three cases of using low code solutions for automating public service problems using the prevalent Microsoft Power Automate application, available in many library workplaces that use the Microsoft Office ecosystem. From simplifying the communication and scheduling process for instruction classes to connecting our student workers’ hourly floor counts to our administrators’ dashboard of building occupancy, we’ve leveraged simple low code automation in a scalable and replicable manner. Pseudo-code examples provided.