
How to use NotebookLM?
NotebookLM is a research and note-taking tool powered by Gemini, Google's large language model (LLM), in this article we will dive deeper into how to use it

Kaushal Joshi
Oct 07, 2024 • 8 min read
In the past two years, AI has revolutionized the tech landscape, influencing almost every industry. From personalized assistants to creative AI tools, we have witnessed significant transformations. Every organization is announcing new AI features in their products and services.
At Google I/O 2024, Google introduced a new AI-powered tool, Project Tailwind, which has since evolved into NotebookLM. This blog will provide an in-depth look at NotebookLM, including what it is, the problems it solves, how it stands out from other AI solutions, and practical ways to integrate it into your daily workflows.
What is NotebookLM?
NotebookLM is a research and note-taking tool powered by Gemini, Google's large language model (LLM). It serves as an AI-driven research assistant, that takes multiple different sources and combines them to generate meaningful insights, summaries, or content.

What is NotebookLM?
Unlike other AI tools, NotebookLM is designed to work specifically with user-provided data, personalizing outputs based on the documents you upload.
What Sources Can You Provide to NotebookLM?
A ‘source’ can be anything that helps NotebookLM gain better insights into your topic. It can be a marketing plan, course reading material, research notes, meeting transcriptions, sales documents, video tutorials, blog posts, or anything else.
You can provide sources in various ways:
PDF documents, text and markdown files, MP3 audio files
Google Docs and Slides
A website link or a YouTube video URLs
Simple text content (with copy-paste)
One thing to note here is that you can only provide 50 sources at max. Furthermore, each source should not have more than 50,000 characters.
What Does NotebookLM Offers?
NotebookLM is unlike other LLM tools we used till now. Rather than providing answers based on pre-trained data, it takes data from a user, trains itself on that specific data, and then generates content based on it.
Source Upload and Integration
NotebookLM enables you to bring together information from articles, books, meetings, transcripts, research papers, videos, audio files, and a lot more.

Source Upload and Integration in NotebookLM?
For instance, a marketing team could upload sales data, research papers, and internal reports, and then use NotebookLM to synthesize insights, which can help in developing a more targeted marketing strategy.
Contextual Question Answering
Unlike static note-taking tools, NotebookLM allows you to ask context-specific questions about the uploaded material. You can ask specific questions, follow up on them, and derive better insights from the sources you provide.
For example, a law student could upload case studies and ask follow-up questions to clarify legal arguments or explore different interpretations of a case.
Citation and Source Tracking
NotebookLM includes citations that link directly back to the specific sections of the source documents from which the information was drawn. This is useful in academic settings where tracking sources is critical.
A history student, for example, could upload multiple history books and documents, generate study guides, and ensure all generated insights are properly cited.
Content Generation
This is the most important feature of NotebookLM, that sets it apart from any other LLM tool that existed before. It transforms the information you provide into various formats such as podcasts, study guides, brief documents, etc.
For instance, a content creator could upload drafts, research notes, and video transcripts, and the AI could generate blog posts, podcast scripts, or summaries based on that input.
Collaboration
Teams can collaborate on shared notebooks, much like Google Drive, but with the added functionality of AI assistance. A product development team could upload meeting notes, research documents, and project plans, then use NotebookLM to generate cohesive project summaries or next steps.
Custom Notes
In addition to interacting with uploaded files, NotebookLM supports manual note creation and organization, similar to traditional note-taking apps, but enhanced with AI-powered suggestions.

Custom Notes with NotebookLM?
NotebookLM can also create some notes based on user prompts. We will see more on this later.
What Are Different Use Cases of NotebookLM?
Everyone from a student preparing for an exam to a professional working on a very sensitive, complex project can utilize NotebookLM to streamline workflows and enhance productivity.
Here are different ways you can use NotebookLM:
Academic Research
A PhD student working on a thesis can upload research papers, books, and notes into NotebookLM. They can ask topic-specific questions to better understand their topic or generate study guides and timelines to manage their research more effectively.
NotebookLM’s citation feature ensures that all sources are properly credited, saving time when writing academic papers.
Content Creation
A social media manager tasked with creating content for multiple platforms can upload their drafts and research into NotebookLM. By generating summaries or pulling key points, they can efficiently repurpose content for blog posts, social media updates, and newsletters.
Professional Report Analysis
Professionals in fields like finance or consulting often deal with lengthy reports. NotebookLM can digest these documents, extracting key insights, generating executive summaries, or even creating FAQs to present to clients. This saves hours of manual review and allows professionals to focus on strategic tasks.
Collaborative Projects
Teams can work together in shared notebooks, utilizing AI-generated summaries to keep everyone on the same page. Imagine a product design team collaborating on a new project. They can upload research, meeting minutes, and design drafts into NotebookLM, and use it to identify key takeaways or next steps for each stage of the project.
Personal Productivity
NotebookLM can help users manage personal notes and generate custom audio summaries or podcast-style discussions, allowing them to absorb information while multitasking, like during workouts. NotebookLM can act as a personal assistant, allowing users to manage information more efficiently while multitasking.
How To Get Started With NotebookLM?
While NotebookLM is still in its experimental phase, it is available for public use. To start using it, visit the official NotebookLM site and sign in with your Google account. From there, you can create new notebooks, upload sources, and begin using the tool.
How To Use NotebookLM?
When you open its website, you’ll see a bunch of example notebooks provided by Google, and a button to create a new notebook. Click on New Notebook
.

How To Use NotebookLM
Add sources
The sources you provide are at the core of everything. So make sure you add high-quality, relevant sources that are related to your goal and are from reputed sources.
Once you add a source, you can get a brief about the source. It will have a summary, some questions you can ask to start the conversation, and direct buttons to create study guides, FAQs, ToC, timelines, etc. There’s another option called ‘Audio Overview`. We will get to it soon.

Start conversation
You can choose any of the predefined prompts or write your own prompt. This works just like any other LLM tool. The way you phrase your prompts significantly impacts the results. Hence be as specific and as clear about the prompts.
NotebookLM provides follow-up prompts that are based on the previous prompts and their answers. You can choose from them, or write your own follow-up prompt.
Create study guides and briefing docs
NotebookLM allows you to create certain documents with just a click of a button. You can create study guides, table of contents, timelines, briefing documents, FAQs, etc
Based on your end goal and the type of work you are doing, you can tailor it to your needs. For example, if you are preparing for a test, the study guide will provide you with a quiz, provide questions to prepare for essay questions, and help you with a glossary as well.

Such documents (study guides, FAQs, ToC, etc) are stored as a note inside the same notebook. One thing to note here (pun intended) is that such responses are view-only and you cannot change them once they are generated. You can only add a title to identify the note.
Create Podcasts
This is THE most interesting feature of NotebookLM. And it makes NotebookLM unique, and different than any other tool.
NotebookLM allows you to generate audio summaries or podcast-style discussions based on your notes, which is great for consuming content while on the go.
It’s a podcast recorded by two people and it discusses the topic of the notebook in detail. You can share the podcast publically, or download it in a WAV file.
Collaborate with others
You can share your notebooks with your team members, colleagues, or peers. You must have their E-mail ID to share the notebook with them.

You can add them as a viewer or an editor. If they are viewer, they can only see the chat, sources, notes, etc. However, if they are editor, they can ask new questions and actively engage in the conversation as well.
Wrapping Up
Whether you’re a student, researcher, or professional, NotebookLM has the potential to transform how you manage and synthesize information. The diverse use cases of NotebookLM would allow you to streamline your workflow and intelligently manage your source information, making you more productive at what you do.
Have you used NotebookLM yet? Were you blown away by listening to the Audio Overview just like me? And how are you using it within your daily workflow? I’d love to know! Feel free to reach out to me on Peerlist or Twitter to share your thoughts.
And btw, if you are looking for jobs, do check out Peerlist Jobs!
Until then, keep building! 👨💻