What Is NotebookLM?

NotebookLM is Google's AI-first research assistant designed to help users synthesize and interact with their content.

By uploading documents — such as PDFs, Google Docs, websites, and more — NotebookLM can:

• Summarize complex information

• Answer questions based on your sources

• Generate FAQs and study guides

• Create audio overviews in a podcast-like format

This tool acts as a personalized AI agent, fine-tuned to your specific materials, making it an invaluable resource for deep learning and research.

The best thing about NotebookLM is that it is “source-grounded”, meaning it generates responses using only the material you’ve uploaded and includes citations to the original text, helping ensure accuracy and traceability.

 

How to Use NotebookLM as Your Study Agent?

1. Upload Your Materials:

First, create a new Notebook and then upload your lecture notes, textbooks, research papers, or any relevant documents to it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NotebookLM supports:

• Google Docs and Slides

• YouTube video links

• Website URLs

• Audio files

• PDFs

• Copy/pasted text

After uploading a document, NotebookLM generates a source guide that summarizes all of your uploaded sources and highlights key topics, allowing you to explore it without needing to read it first.

The free plan allows you to upload up to 50 sources per notebook, each containing a maximum of 500,000 words.

 

2. Interact with your files:

In the chat window (in the middle of the screen), ask questions, request summaries, or generate study guides based on your content.

Enter your prompts, and the output appears within seconds. On the left of the input field, you can see how many sources the model used to generate the answer. (You can check or uncheck the sources used for each prompt, depending on what you want it to pull from.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NotebookLM excels at exploring data and connecting ideas. When you upload related sources, it can combine information from multiple documents, providing answers with citations linking to the original paragraphs.

You can:

1. Quickly Summarize Lengthy Papers
2. Identify research gap
3. Compare multiple sources
4. Create study guides

 

3. Listen to Audio Overviews:

NotebookLM also allows you to convert your source materials into podcast-style audio summaries for on-the-go learning.

You can generate a conversation between two AI characters on your notebook’s core topics, making complex information more digestible. You can even join the dialogue, though this feature may not always work as expected.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Take Instant Notes:

 You can create instant notes by simply clicking the Add note button, which opens a text editor with formatting options.

You can also save the NotebookLM responses to your prompts as notes. Notes saved in NotebookLM aren't used for AI answers by default, but you can convert individual or multiple notes into sources using the "Convert to Source" button.

In the Notes section on the left, you can see some note templates:

• Study guide: Generates a quiz with answers, essay questions, and a key terms glossary.

• FAQ: Creates a list of frequently asked questions.

• Briefing doc: Summarizes key information and connections from the notebook.

• Timeline: Organizes dates from the data into a chronological sequence, ideal for history

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. Create Mind Maps

You can also create mind maps from your notes or uploaded files.

Mind maps are great for:

• Brainstorming Ideas

• Project Planning

• Organizing Information

• Problem Solving

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pro Tips:

1. Structure your queries effectively
2. Follow-up with deeper queries
3. Upload multiple source files