Shelving

The process of shelving books is a physically demanding task.

There is a saying, “A Shelver lifts more weight than a brickie’s labourer each day”. Whether this is true or not is not important, but it illustrates the heavy work Shelvers undertake.

Each day Shelvers push trolleys around, carry the books to the shelves and place them in the correct position. There isn’t a lot of the process we can automate.

However we can help reduce the risk of an injury by lifting, pushing, pulling, holding and carrying in the correct manner.

The process of shelving usually involves:

• sorting the books into the correct order
• pushing the trolley to the area where they are to be shelved
• carrying the books to the shelves
• shelving the books.

Let’s look at the process in more detail and the strategies we can use to make the process of shelving books as risk free as possible.