Questions
- What is Notebook LM?
- Who developed Notebook LM?
- What can Notebook LM do?
- What is Notebook LM commonly used for?
Audience
All Bowdoin College faculty, staff, and students
Key Features
NotebookLM is an AI-powered research and note-taking tool developed by Google. It allows you to upload source materials — such as PDFs, Google Docs, web links, and other documents — and interact with them through a conversational AI interface. The tool can summarize content, answer questions about your uploaded sources, and help you organize and synthesize information.
- Source-Grounded AI: NotebookLM generates responses based only on the documents you provide, reducing the likelihood of inaccurate or fabricated information (commonly referred to as "hallucinations").
- Studio: Within Notebook LM you can choose from a selection of Studio ‘Tools’ as output from your prompts. Currently these include:
- Audio Overviews: Generate an AI podcast based on your sources
- Slide Deck: Generate an AI slide deck based on your sources
- Video Overview: Generate an explainer video, presented to you by AI
- Mind Map: Generate an AI mind map based on your sources
- Reports: Generate reports based on your sources
- Flashcards: Generate AI flashcards based on your sources
- Quiz: Generate an AI interactive quiz based on your sources
- Infographic: Generate an AI infographic based on your sources
- Data Table: Generate a data table from your sources
- Citations and References: When NotebookLM provides a response, it includes inline citations pointing back to the specific passages in your source material, making it easy to verify information.
- Multi-Source Notebooks: You can upload up to 50 sources per notebook and ask questions that span across all of them.
- Notes and Organization: You can save AI-generated responses as notes, write your own notes, and organize your research within the notebook.
Common Use Cases
- Research: Upload multiple papers or articles and ask NotebookLM to compare findings, identify themes, or summarize key arguments.
- Course Preparation: Faculty can upload syllabi, readings, and lecture notes to quickly generate study guides or discussion questions.
- Studying: Students can upload course materials and quiz themselves or request simplified explanations of complex topics.
- Meeting Preparation: Upload agendas, past meeting notes, and project documents to prepare talking points or summaries.
Important Considerations
- Any data uploaded to Notebook LM must adhere to the Bowdoin IT Security Standard: Data Storage and Retention policy.
- Do not upload documents containing sensitive or confidential information, such as Social Security numbers, student records protected under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), or protected health information.
- For information on the three data classification levels at Bowdoin see the Data Classification Policy article.
- NotebookLM is not a replacement for critical thinking or academic rigor. Always verify the outputs against your original sources.
- NotebookLM is available to Bowdoin community members through your Bowdoin account. See the article on accessing NotebookLM with your Bowdoin account for setup instructions.
Note: Google may update NotebookLM features periodically. This article reflects functionality available as of the current date.
Additional Help
If you need further assistance, you can chat with Bowdoin Bot of contact the Bowdoin College Service Desk by phone at (207) 725-3030 or in person at the Tech Hub in Smith Union.