Learn how to use the library
Short guides written by the library — from your first sign-in to opening a licensed article at midnight from home. Nothing here assumes you have used a library platform before.
A Read is a page you read on its own. A Walkthrough is meant to be followed in a second tab, step by step, on the real portal.
New here? Start with these four, in order
They take you from an account you have never used to a licensed article open on your screen at home. Each one assumes you finished the one before it.
- Sign in for the first time Where the sign-in button is, which of the three routes Aurora uses, and what to do if your account is not recognised yet.
- Search the library and read the results One box searches the catalogue, the publishers and the repository together. What the badge on each result is telling you.
- Get to a licensed article from off campus The link to use, what the publisher's page should look like when it works, and what to do when it asks you to pay.
- Save what you find to My Library Favourites, folders and reading lists, so you never have to run the same search twice.
Searching and finding things
3 guidesGetting a short, relevant list instead of forty thousand results — and knowing which results you can actually open.
One box across the catalogue, the publishers and the repository, and what each access badge means.
Year, peer review, full text, subject and language — and how to undo a filter you regret.
Advanced search field by field, and which limiters each search service supports.
The question the library is asked more than any other. Everything here works the same way in the mobile app.
Five steps, from signing in to a PDF that opens without asking you for a card.
Three things to check, in order, before you conclude the library does not have it.
What each sign-in route asks you for, and which one to pick when both are offered.
Your account and saved work
3 guidesSigning in, and keeping what you found so that next week you can pick it up where you left it.
Where to sign in, and what to do if the portal does not recognise your account yet.
Favourites and folders, and what stays saved when a licence changes.
Make a list, order it, and give a class a link that keeps working next term.
Writing up and depositing your work
3 guidesFor students and researchers finishing a thesis, a paper or a report — and for anyone who has to cite what they read.
The five-step deposit form, what each description field is for, and what happens after you submit.
Who may reuse your work, and how to keep the file hidden until a date you set.
Choosing a style, using a reference manager, and citing Arabic and digital sources.
How these guides are written and kept current 4 notes
Every guide is written by Aurora library staff against this portal, not adapted from a vendor's manual. Screens and wording are checked at the start of each term, and the date on each guide is the date it was last checked — not the date it was first written.
A guide cannot be published until both its English and its Arabic version exist. There is no machine translation and no silent fallback: if you are reading in Arabic, an Arabic author wrote what you are reading.
Reading times are measured, not estimated — a Read is timed at 200 words a minute, and a Walkthrough adds the time it takes to do each step in the portal.
Which guides exist is up to your institution. Aurora publishes twelve; another institution may publish three, or none at all, and this section only appears in the menu once at least one guide is published.