Safety is Everyone's Responsibility

Welcome to Safety Saturday! 

Amazing work on the manual handling last week everyone! We saw so many safe lifts happening all around the library and the safe step was more requested than the new Stephen King novel. 😏 

For this coming week, The Little Tree House Library team has decided to focus on health and safety around the use of multimedia within our library. 

Not to go on about it too much but we have recently acquired a new computer, making this the perfect opportunity to remind everyone of the most important safety behaviours to be practising while using equipment such as this. 

Electrical & Fire

The Little Tree House Library has had the computer inspected and tagged now it is up to you to: 

• Check the cables before use to check there are no damaged or tangled cables. 
• Report anything damaged or worn to a librarian. 
• Only have bottled water around the computer (no food or other drink is allowed inside the library). 
• Keep cords out of the way to prevent trip hazards. 
• Use the computer and equipment correctly (if you are ever unsure about how to use something please ASK A LIBRARIAN).   
• Below is the Fire Evacuation Plan for the library, please take a moment to look at it (you will find the exact same ones near the fire exit doors inside the library) in case we ever do need to evacuate the library. Again, if you have any questions or concerns please contact us via phone, email or in person.

Manual Handling 

Here it is again! Please go read our safety post from last Saturday for a more in-depth look into what manual handling means and how we can all be safe while handling items within The Little Tree House Library. 

For this week we would like to remind everyone about the following: 

• Frequency and duration! The computers can be booked an hour at a time and after this, we really encourage everyone to stand up and do some form of stretching or exercise (you will have to walk to the circulation desk to re-register if you are planning to keep using the computer). 
• Please do not move the computer screen or monitor as they are heavy, fragile, and placed in a specific way to help ergonomics (more on that in a second!). You are allowed to move the keyboard, mouse and adjust the height of the screen. If, for some unseen reason, the monitor and/or screen does require moving around please ASK A LIBRARIAN and we will assess the situation and help if we can.

Ergonomic Working Arrangement

We touched on this last week with the repetition stress injuries potentially caused by manual handling but having an ergonomic working environment is especially important this week with the use of computers! 

The Little Tree House Library has set up the computers so the work environment is well laid out and the screens are approximately arm's distance away from where the user will be sitting. 

There is plenty of space between computers to place work and items on the desk so they are easily accessible but will not get in the way. 

We have chairs that are adjustable in both the seat height and the backrest's angle.  

It is up to you to: 

• Always adjust the screen height so the top of the screen to at eye level before using the computer. 
• Adjust the seat so your feet are flat on the ground and your legs are bent at a 90-degree angle (At the knees! If your legs are bent anywhere else please let us know immediately).
• Organise any items you place on the desk so they are easy to reach without twisting or straining too much. 
• Move items around using two hands and always check the weight before you lift!
• Try to stretch and move around regularly in a safe manner (this is not an excuse to run three laps of the library and vault the printer!).

We have ergonomics workplace checklists available, so if you are interested please let us know and we will email one to you. 

Thank you to everyone for continuing to keep The Little Tree House Library safe!