Health and safety and piracy: legal risk minimisation in libraries

This article presents a preliminary discussion of two points of interest. Part one puts forward that libraries need to be actively aware of the health and safety issues relating to computer work‐stations, this awareness will allow sensible steps to be taken not just to mitigate potential liability concerns but to ensure that computer technology is accessible and also easily and comfortably used by library employees and public users of the library. Part two argues that libraries will need to be versed in the dual disciplines of computer technology and copyright law to allow librarians and the library's computer support service to prevent copyright infringement. Libraries must distance themselves from potential piracy such as e‐book, music, games and computer software downloads facilitated by the peer‐to‐peer network. The article reviews, dissects and finally presents some tentative solutions that may mitigate the potential litigation from health and safety and piracy.