The Social Science Library has a range of ergonomic equipment, furniture and assistive technology, designed to help you work more comfortably and efficiently in our library.
Let’s take a look at what we have on offer:
Furniture
The library has 7 height-adjustable desks (5 electronic, 2 manual).
Two are located in our reading room area which you can reach by going around the corner from our Issue Desk and then turning right to go past the rows of bookshelves.
Three are located in our Quiet Study Room.
One is located in our Silent Study Room.
One is located behind our main computer area and has a computer on it, for your use.
Standard adjustable chairs are available in our two Study Rooms and at desks equipped with PCs. Library staff are happy to fetch or move these on request for you. We also have ten ergonomic chairs available for your use, one of these is pictured above.
Assistive Equipment
The library has a ‘DaVinci Pro’ CCTV/OCR magnifier, which is kept in the south-west area of the library, near the microfilm reader and microfiche reader. This device can display high-definition enlarged images which can be of benefit to readers with low vision. It also has an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) mode which can take snapshots of written text and convert them to audio speech. Please ask library staff for assistance and guidance with the device. A full instruction manual can be obtained from the Issue Desk, and there is a video introducing the device’s main features.
A hearing induction loop is fitted in the middle of the issue desk, the position indicated by a sticker on the front of the desk.
The following equipment is available to borrow from the issue desk for use in the library:
- desk lamps (including 2 Lumie daylight lamps)
- magnifiers (suspended hands-free)
- coloured acetate overlay sheets (red, green, orange, blue, yellow, rose & aqua)
- headphones
- book rests
- slim ‘light touch’ keyboard
- ergonomic keyboard (recommended for readers with conditions such as RSI)
Ask Issue Desk if you would like help with locating, using any of these items. Also see our web page on the ‘Social Science Library for Disabled Readers.’