AskLibrary

AskLibrary is designed for questions rather than just for lookups. Ask it something like “what do Eco Library documents say about groundwater risks on Bowen Island?” and it will read across multiple documents and give you a synthesized answer with source references.

Searching the Eco Library

Because it searches by meaning rather than exact matching, AskLibrary may not surface every document on a topic, and it works best for thematic or interpretive questions. The current model at work is Claude Sonnet.

The library catalog , which does not use AI, is the right discovery tool when you want exact, exhaustive results; browsing by subject category, filtering by document type (reports, bylaws, studies), narrowing by date range, or finding every document associated with a particular author or organization. It gives you a complete, filtered list of matching records with direct links to the source PDFs. Use it when you need to be thorough, or when you already know what you’re seeking. For thorough research, use both tools together..

If you have around a dozen or fewer specific documents you’d like to analyze closely, it may be better to download the PDFs (or convert them to markdown files to increase their number, speed and token economy) and put them directly in your own AI chat window offline. Offline usage also remains private and doesn’t rely on data centres.

The chat considers context. So if you’ve started talking about two specific documents, then shift to larger questions, you will do better to clear the chat and begin anew.

It is possible to print your exchanges – find the button at the top right corner of the chat window.