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When you think of professions where workers are at a high risk for injury on the job, you're not likely to think of librarians. Yet library workers and anyone who works extensively with computers should consider their machines as potential occupational hazards.
The majority of us now rely heavily on our computers, both at work and at home. Professionally and personally, computers have become indispensible, allowing us to communicate by e-mail and instant messaging, produce word processed documents and create multimedia presentations, to name just a few. Yet the repetitive actions of typing and using a mouse can take its toll on the human body, which was not designed to sit at workstation for many hours a day, as most of us now do on a regular basis. Problems related to poor ergonomics can manifest as persistent pain and, in some cases, disability.
Further complicating the situation are the very items that many librarians hold dear -- namely the books and other materials in the library collection. Sorting, lifting and shelving of these items, if done repetitively, can also lead to health problems down the road. While certainly there are many other professions that involve a far greater risk of personal safety, librarians who work in environments where ergonomics is not made a priority may eventually experience a repetitive strain injury.
This website attempts to highlight some of the potential risks and to offer solutions to the problem of repetitive strain injury and poor ergonomics.
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