There was a positive reaction to Saturday’s experimental post, Bytown 200th: Ottawa’s History, which included an audio debate generated by NotebookLM. Let’s try another.
An opinion article in Monday’s Globe and Mail by Charles Lammam under the headline “Productivity is an urgent problem for Canada…” claimed that “From 2014 to 2024 labour productivity grew at just 0.3 per cent per year on average — less than a third of the American rate.” American must mean U.S. Among a long list of structural failures, Lammam includes “a public sector growing in size but declining in effectiveness and productivity.”
My input provided to NotebookLM was
- the object (mission) from The Library and Archives Canada Act,
- Gemini’s response to the prompt “I’m considering writing a blog post on the productivity of Library and Archives Canada as an organization. As an expert on productivity in the sector, please suggest an approach.”
- Gemini’s response to the follow-on prompt “I’d like to start with a long-term perspective on resources used by the organization.”
- Gemini’s response to the follow-on prompt “Please take a more critical approach.”
NotebookLM’s synthesis was
“Library and Archives Canada (LAC) is currently navigating a complex productivity shift as it transitions from traditional paper-based archiving to a high-output digital factory model. Despite broader national concerns regarding public sector inefficiency, the agency has achieved record-breaking digitization targets through the use of artificial intelligence and strategic infrastructure investments. However, this technical success is contrasted by a persistent operational debt found in backlogged information requests and aging physical storage standards. Current fiscal pressures have resulted in workforce reductions, forcing the organization to balance a shrinking headcount against an increasing demand for digital preservation. Ultimately, the sources highlight a central tension between LAC’s mission to expand public access and the financial reality of maintaining a massive national heritage collection.”
Here’s the audio debate.
A tension between preservation and access at LAC continues. Time will tell whether the digitization effort of the past year will continue. There’s no lack of material. Will it, along with AI, lead to significant advances in access as we’ve seen with the FamilySearch Full Text search initiative? What do you think?