Beyond Chatbots: How Google’s New Textbook Library Helps Indian Students Master Concepts

NEW DELHI: Understanding core concepts is far more important for students than just mugging up paragraphs and notes. Further, staying organised while preparing for examinations is another challenge amid a flood of study materials, confusion over whether a source is authentic, and the high cost of reference books. Google now offers a credible solution free of cost to all of these problems.

Google has added hundreds of free textbooks to the study material available through Gemini Notebook for students in India and the USA.

The move aims to make it easier for students to use AI tools for revision, practice and understanding difficult topics without having to build their study resources from scratch.

The Notebook LM, unlike a chatbot, allows users to work with selected sources and get responses grounded in those materials. With the new addition of textbook collection, students can access cited answers, personalised study guides, practice quizzes and flashcards.

Salient features

The new textbook collection includes resources from educational providers such as OpenStax, Open Textbook Library and India’s S Chand Publishing.

Students can add these books directly to their notebooks and ask questions about the material.

The answers are linked to the original textbook through inline citations, allowing students to check the source of information instead of relying on an AI-generated response only.

The students can also turn textbook content into study guides, quizzes and flashcards. These resources can be tailored to help with revision, understanding and remember important concepts.

How to access textbook collection

Step 1: Open Gemini Notebook and select an existing notebook.

Step 2: Click on Add sources.

Step 3: Choose textbooks from the available categories.

Step 4: Browse the catalogue and select a relevant textbook.

Step 5: Add it to the notebook and start asking questions or creating study material.

To know more details about adding a free textbook to Gemini Notebook, click here.

Google has made it clear that the textbook collection is available at no additional cost and students do not have to find and upload each textbook file separately.

Expert Intelligence initiative

The expansion builds on Google’s Expert Intelligence initiative, introduced last month to bring more expert-backed information into its AI products.

Until now, students could add eligible e-books purchased through Google Play Books to their notebooks. The latest collection brings textbooks from educational publishers and providers in India and the USA into the catalogue.

For students, the difference is access to academic material and AI-powered revision tools at one place. The citations and links to original sources are useful, as it allows learners to verify information before using it.